Advertisment

AOL to acquire Bebo for $850-mn

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

NEW YORK, USA: AOL has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo, a global social media network, for $850 million in cash.

Advertisment

Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network, the acquisition will give AOL a premier position in the social media with a network of approximately 80 million users, AOL said in a release.

With a total membership of more than 40 million worldwide, Bebo is a global social media network which combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover and share content.

Bebo has approximately 100 employees operating in offices in the UK, San Francisco and Austin.

Advertisment

The deal comes just one week after AOL's launch of Open AIM 2.0, an initiative that allows the developer community greater freedom to access the AIM network and integrate AIM into its sites and applications, and the announcement by Apple of a downloadable AIM application for the iPhone.

"Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL's personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media,” said Randy Falco, chairman and CEO, AOL.

"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,” Falco added.

Advertisment

"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.

Upon closing the transaction, current president Joanna Shields will continue to run Bebo and will report to Ron Grant.

Analyst eMarketer predicts that by 2011, $4.1 billion will be spent worldwide for social network advertising – a dramatic increase from the $480 million spent in 2006.

tech-news