AOL's Turn To Buy Something: AOL Buys Bebo
Is it just that companies get bored in the winter so they decide to buy other companies, or is that they get they year-end results and have their entire next year's budget to spend? Whatever the reason, tech companies seem to be in a fervor lately trying to buy other tech joints in an attempt to stay relevant.
AOL announced it's purchase of social network Bebo today for just $850 Million. That seems to be a large sum of money to me, considering I've really only heard little rumblings of Bebo, but that could be because I'm in the US. Apparently, Bebo is quite the new IT in England and parts of the rest of the EU (can any of our UK readers confirm? I know you're out there...). The move was definitely not seen by speculators around these parts, but I suppose it can make sense. Social Networks are the golden child of marketers these days, and AOL wants to find a way to stay relevant to the younger generation that don't even remember AOL as the free floppy disk company.
I've heard good things about Bebo in general, but have never tried it out myself. If you've tried it, drop us a line with your impressions, and if you're a regular user, let us know what you think about this sudden buy-out. Good, bad, indifferent?
AOL buys social networking site Bebo for $850 Million [Download Squad]
Jesse James
Posted to Hot Stuff, In the News on 13 March 2008
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: AOL, Bebo, buy-out, Social Networking
If it ain't broke... cease production. Right?
Bebo is the most popular networking site here in Ireland by far. Almost every single teenager has a profile, that they regularly update with pictures and blogs and stuff. Most organisations here have a Bebo group page, too; for example, all the organisations that deal with gay issues have a page, and all the organisations that work with the Irish language have a page.
Personally, I like Bebo. It's a lot more fun than the other networking sites, it's much, much more user friendly (though that comes at the expense of customisation).
Hey there. I actually worked for them for a bit in their customer service and tech. I found that the most of these seem to be nothing more than under age school kids that seem to ask quite the .. promiscuious (spelling?). There was even a story on Fark of an Aussie girl that was 14 and used the site to advertise and throw a party that included Drugs, Beer, Sex, and Handcuffs (yes those were specifically mentioned).
Ill stick to my of legal age myspace. :)
As an update. My friend just called and is kicking himself. He was let go and sold his stock a week ago. Turns out today they are offering their current employees 5x what he got for his stock. (yes were talking in the thousands. )
@Sinfully Delicious
Yikes!!! Tell your friend I'm sorry to hear that, that's gotta sting a little.
So, I take it there were no rumors or news flying around across the pond (either pond ;) of this buyout?
Actually yeah. My buddy was telling me about the rumor for a bit. But this has been going on for months.