Telegraaf Media Group buys popular Dutch social networking website

[News_Editor]

Telegraaf Media Group buys popular Dutch social networking website

2010-11-01 19:34:02 GMT+7 (ICT)

AMSTERDAM (BNO NEWS) -- Telegraaf Media Group on Monday announced it has acquired popular Dutch social networking website Hyves, which is comparable with the American social networking website Facebook.

The acquisition of Hyves comes just over six years after it was launched in October 2004. In that time, the website quickly grew to become the country's largest social networking website with more than 9 million members and 150 employees.

Financial details about the acquisition by the Telegraaf Media Group (TMG), which also owns De Telegraaf newspaper and popular weblog GeenStijl, were not released during Monday's announcement.

"During the past year, social media has become commonplace and will increasingly become part of our every day lives during the coming years," said Marc de Vries, CEO of Hyves. "Our mission 'Hyves connects the Netherlands' in which we build on our roots in Dutch society fits in perfectly with the activities of TMG. We expect this strong partnership will help us continue to grow in user activity and revenue."

With the acquisition, TMG now controls one-hundred percent of Hyves' shares. "Patrick Morley. "We see this in the Telegraaf Media Group, the acquisition of Hyves, as a very big step in realizing our internet ambitions," said Patrick Morley, COO of TMG.

Not completely surprising, Geenstijl - which is a Dutch word to describe someone or an organization that has no style or manners - was less positive about the acquisition of Hyves.

"Today the news that De Telegraaf buys Hyves. Haha, the unprofitable are partnering with the wimps," Geenstijl writer Matthijs van den Beukel wrote on the weblog, describing the social networking website as an 'online trailer park.' "And who wants to be friends with Hyves? Does no one understand that Hyves is nothing more than digital HIV? Infectious as hel_l, it slowly destroys your resistance against junk and eventually you die a painful social death. Hyves is social suicide."

Hyves expects a 20 million euros (28 million USD) turnover in 2010.

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