AOL Buying Bebo For $850 Million

In a major and rather unexpected deal, AOL is buying social net Bebo for $850 million in cash. Rumors had swirled around Bebo of either an acquisition or new financing for weeks, but few anticipated AOL as the suitor. AOL will get Bebo’s 40 million members and 80 million unique users, its core 13-to-24 demographic and a growing line in both original TV production and hosting broadcasters’ content. This comes as AOL completes its transition from an access business to an ad-funded content and community player. AOL CEO Randy Falco: “Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media. What drew us to Bebo was its substantial and fast-growing worldwide user-base, its vision of a truly social web, and the monetization opportunities that leverage Platform-A (AOL’s ad system) across our combined global audience. This positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers.” Shields says the acquisition is “a natural progression” for Bebo because the pair share “one and the same vision in this area” of leveraging social networks.
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-breaking-aol-buying-bebo-for-850-million/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/13/aol-buys-bebo-for-750-million/