DatingDirect, the Brummie-based dating service, has been sold to French dating company Meetic for £27.3m.

The company was started in 1999 by Darren Richards and Andrew Pike and now claims over 4.5 million members - 3.5 million of them in the UK - which makes it the UK's largest dating service.

But as well as running its own very successful service the company also offers white label services for other brands like Channel4 and TrinityMirror.

DatingDirect turned over about £11m last year. The acquisition also includes the Chemistry company which organises real-world dating events.

Meetic is a French company which does pretty much the same thing across Europe. Meetic said the acquistion would put it in a leading position in the UK market without the need for an expensive advertising and marketing campaign.®