Bebo sold by AOL

[hah]

Internet company AOL has sold Bebo, the social networking site it bought two years ago for $850m (then £417m).

Criterion Capital Partners, a small private investment firm, announced that it had bought the business, but did not disclose the amount paid.

However, analysts suspect it to be just a fraction of the price paid by AOL in 2008.

Since then, Bebo has struggled to compete effectively against social networking rivals such as Facebook.

Earlier this year, AOL announced plans to sell or shut down Bebo because it was unable to provide the "significant investment" needed to prevent its decline as a business.

The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones called AOL's decision to buy Bebo "one of the worst deals ever made in the dotcom era".

"The extraordinary thing is the deal was made years after the dotcom crash which was supposed to have taught the industry lessons," he said.

"The interesting thing is that the founder, Michael Birch, walked away with $300m - it's the art of timing."

zzzzzzz loved it when it was 05 lol

[Caution]

does anyone still use it.. :S

[PaulMacC]

I went on and saved all of the old pictures, haven't been on since.

[hah]

they get 20million hits a month or something, almost 3 times less than this time last year or something they said

[Moh]

who would want to buy it? =S

Does this also mean AOL have sold our data :o

[Metric1]

BEBO SUCKS

[Mathew]

Never used Bebo, it's terrible. Went straight from MySpace to Facebook :P

[Hitman]

who would want to buy it? =S

Does this also mean AOL have sold our data :o
Yes, don't know why you're so surprised because you agreed that they could sell it when you signed up. Terms of Service, remember that little thing? ;)

[Moh]

Yes, don't know why you're so surprised because you agreed that they could sell it when you signed up. Terms of Service, remember that little thing? ;)
Wish they had sold em to a company I trust :(

[Becca]

I used to go on it like, two years ago.
It's just a rubbish version of Facebook now.

[Mikey]

Bebo's still around. The buyers made a big mistake of buying it because no one really uses Bebo anymore, it was a 2006 thing. I use facebook now, I was the first person to leave Bebo to go to Facebook out of all my friends.

[Special]

Bebo's still around. The buyers made a big mistake of buying it because no one really uses Bebo anymore, it was a 2006 thing. I use facebook now, I was the first person to leave Bebo to go to Facebook out of all my friends.

same

i convinced them to start using bebo, then when facebook became pop i convinced them to join facebook too

[GommeInc]

Never used it. I remember reading about this a few days ago, good luck to them :P

[Melsia]

I deleted my account like a year or so ago because of all the stupid virus things where it sent messages to all your friends :@
Facebook is so much better anyway - I miss the bebo flash video boxes though!

[wiktoria]

LOL I used to love bebo and when everyone gave you love, but then I started going on facebook.

[Muct]

They only just did this? They were talking about it on the Nwes like a year ago, took them long enough :)

[Amberr]

Awww i remember in year 7/8 i used to be addicted to Bebo, and making the skins.... now i realise how crap it is compared to facebook :L

[Geraint]

I actually think Bebo is better. Facebook's ****.

[Adamm]

I was the first person to leave Bebo to go to Facebook out of all my friends.
wow that is impressive well done

[Tintinnabulate]

Wish they had sold em to a company I trust :(

Did you trust AOL? Because if you did then they sold it :P so doesn't matter even if it goes to a company you trust :P.

[Sameer!]

yep, knew this was gonna happen. Posted a article on Habbox about this like a month ago :)

[Sharon]

I don't blame them, with Facebook so popular, their bound to lose out

[Camy]

yeah, think aol made a fairly big mistake buying this when they did.

lol i remember when it first came about, getting love off people and making people skins and whatnot. deleted it like 2 and a half years ago now though :( ahh the memories.