Lesson Nine, the Berlin-based company behind language-learning portal Babbel, has bought online community FriendsAbroad.com three months after securing VC funding from Kizoo AG and VC-Fonds Berlin. Acquiring FriendsAbroad all makes sense to Babbel MD Markus Witte who said the Babbel users would be able to use it to “find active learning partners anywhere in the world” as they brush up on their chosen language.

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Babbel was founded last year and went online in January 2008 and before this deal had more than 100,000 users learning English, Spanish, Italian, French or German. TechCrunch reports that FriendsAbroad, which has upward of 500,000 members, will be shut down and its users transferred to Babbel within six months. In any case, the site is no longer taking new registrations and instead points to a Babbel section for FA users. FriendsAbroad was founded by Simon Murdoch, whose track record in new media includes founding online store Bookpages, later sold to Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN), a stint as VP of Amazon.co.uk and investments in Betfair and LoveFilm. Release.