A couple who launched Friends Reunited from their spare bedroom were celebrating a windfall of more than #30 million yesterday after selling the business to ITV.

Julie and Steve Pankhurst, who founded the reunion website in 2000, sold their stake in the firm as part of a deal initially valued at up to #120 million.

It will also mean major payouts for 52 Friends Reunited managers and employees - who share a 40 per cent stake - as well as the couple's business partner Jason Porter.

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Mrs Pankhurst, aged 38, came up with the idea for Friends Reunited as a way of finding out how many of her old school friends were pregnant like herself.

Her software engineer husband and his business partner, Mr Porter, then set to work on the site and Friends Reunited was launched in 2000 from the Pankhursts' house in north London.

It grew so quickly that it soon became a full-time job, handling five million hits a day within a year of its launch.

The site has expanded rapidly in the last five years and now has 15 million members after moving into areas such as Genes Reunited - a site that allows people to trace their family tree.

ITV bought the group for an initial sum of up to #120 million, and a further payment of up to #55 million may be made during 2009 based on performance targets.

The Friends Reunited brand will not change or merge with any other ITV sites, but the deal will allow ITV to cross-sell from site to site in areas such as dating, recruitment and classifieds. It said the Genes Reunited business was the "real engine of growth", with the number of names listed on the site rising by six million to 46 million in the last two months.

As well as helping people track down old friends and trace their family tree, Friends Reunited also features a jobs board, a dating site, chat rooms and even allows visitors to resit old school exam papers.

Mr Pankhurst, aged 41, said: " When we started Friends Reunited in our spare bedroom in July 2000, we had no idea that what began as a hobby would gain phenomenon status, let alone develop into a family of successful websites."

The Pankhursts gave up the running of the site in 2003 when they handed over control to a management team led by chief executive Michael Murphy, but retained a 30 per cent stake in the business. The move allowed them to spend more time with their two young daughters.

Mr Porter also has 30 per cent of the business, with the rest held by management and employees.

Jeff Henry, director of the ITV Consumer unit, said: "The acquisition of Friends Reunited is a key step in the delivery of our strategy to drive new revenue streams for the company."

Friends Reunited is forecast to report turnover of #12.4 million this year and earnings before interest and taxation of #6.6 million. Next year, sales should rise to #18.7 million, with EBITDA seen increasing to #8.9 million.

For the extra payout to hit the full #55 million Friends Reunited needs to turn a profit of #18 million in 2008.