It’s shop ‘til you drop time online these days and AOL has hopped in by agreeing to buy social networking site, Bebo, for a cool $850 million.
Bebo is the third largest social networking site after MySpace and Facebook, with 40 million members. - most of them in the UK. With AOL’s sales figures dropping significantly in recent quarters, it’s widely agreed that the online giant needs to do something to replace the users who no longer want to pay for its Web access services
Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO, AOL, said:
“What drew us to Bebo was its substantial and fast-growing worldwide user-base, its vision of a truly social web, and the monetisation opportunities that leverage Platform-A 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."
"AOL understands the shifting dynamics of the Web and has clearly demonstrated its commitment to leveraging the ever-increasing power of social networks," said Bebo President, Joanna Shields. "With one and the same vision in this area, it was a natural progression for Bebo to join AOL, and we look forward to working together to continue to expand the online social experience globally."
The users - of which 11m are from the UK – might have mixed feelings about the AOL deal but the founders, hubby and wife team Michael Birch and Xochi, are laughing all the way to the bank since they control 70% of the stock. Next 4,000 rounds are on them then.-Martin Lynch
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
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