Finding a new owner for the original social network, the board of Friendster is reportedly set to sell the recently redesigned Web community in the next few weeks.
Founded in 2002, in the far-off era before MySpace or Facebook, Friendster “will be sold to an Asian buyer by the end of December for at least $100 million,” reported Reuters, citing “a source familiar with the matter.”
Backed by blue-chip Silicon Valley investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Friendster has rapidly lost users and visibility to MySpace and, particularly, Facebook in recent years. The company, now headed by former Google executive Richard Kimber, said its site has 75 million registered users and gets 90 percent of its traffic from the Asia-Pacific region. The site recently underwent a redesign aimed at young Asian users.
Kimber confirmed to Reuters that the company is negotiating with potential buyers and that investment bank Morgan Stanley is steering the sale.
Facebook claims to have more than 350 million active users, of whom 65 million access the site from their mobile devices.
