AOL to Acquire Bebo for $850 million

Despite intense pressure from Wall Street, slowed revenue growth and apparent management dysfunction, AOL continues to be aggressive on the acquisition front. The Time Warner-owned Web pioneer said that it has agreed to acquire Bebo, a fast-growing social networking site best known for its popularity in the U.K., for $850 million.  According to AOL, Bebo claims 40 million registered members worldwide, including a strong presence in Ireland and New Zealand. The site, which has a growing U.S. audience, shares several aspects of much larger rivals MySpace and Facebook, as users can create personal profiles, share photos and videos, listen to music and generally express themselves.

Last Word: Oh my. Before Bebo, AOL had a lot of work to do to ingest their other acquisitions: AdTech, Tacoda, Goowy, and Third Screen Media to name a few.  Adding Bebo to that list makes one wonder if they shouldn’t focus on their current integration challenges before adding additional layers of complexity.  The race to see who collects the most “toys” continues in the digital publisher space….

 

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