Friendster to be acquired by Malaysia's MOL Global

According to the companies, the merger will create “Asia’s largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network, pairing MOL’s offline retail channel partners and payment platform with Friendster’s large online footprint, social network and user community in Asia”.

MOL Global, which claims annual revenues of more than US$1.8 billion, did not release pricing details of the deal.

The news comes less than one week after Friendster unveiled its relaunched site and logo that included improved services for digital micropayments and games, for which MOL claims expertise in Southeast Asia. 

According to the company, MOL has a network of more than 500,000 physical and virtual payment channels across 75 countries worldwide, through maintaining a focus in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India.

The company also has relationships with more than 70 online game publishers that have have 200 online game titles.

“This combination is a natural progression of our relationship and will be an industry-changing event,” said Friendster’s CEO Richard Kimber. “The new combined entity gives Friendster the kind of financial backing, retail distribution, and e-commerce infrastructure that will enable us to accelerate our strategy and create a locally relevant, fun experience for our users in Asia, both on and offline.”

News of Friendster’s intentions to find a buyer surfaced in July. At the time, a source at Friendster confirmed to Media that TechCrunch, which first reported the story, had seen “a very fact-based document” issued by Friendster and Morgan Stanley, which was enlisted to help with the process. That article noted that Friendster sought a buyer looking to gain quick access to the Asian social networking scene.

Last week, news surfaced that Friendster had shortlisted a group of companies for the merger. Global reports cited sources that named Chinese digital powerhouse Tencent as among the contenders.

Friendster and MOL first began working together in October, when MOL was enlisted to develop an integrated payments platform that would lay the foundation for The Friendster Wallet and The Friendster Gift Shop.