AOL Buys Bebo for $850M
Social-Media Network Has 40M Users
By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/13/2008 10:34:00 AM EDT
AOL acquired social-media network Bebo for $850 million in cash.
Bebo is used by 40 million people worldwide, with its strongest user base in the United Kingdom, United States and Ireland. Bebo users on average view 78 pages on the site per day.
AOL plans to incorporate Bebo with its exiting product lines, including instant-messenger services AIM and ICQ.
"Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL's personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media," chairman and CEO Randy Falco said in a statement. "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 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."
Bebo president Joanna Shields will continue to run day-to-day operations of the company, reporting to AOL president and chief operating officer Ron Grant.
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