Intellectual Property Law

AOL to Buy Bebo for $850 Million - Who Cares?

By Cynthia Brumfield

At least once per week, if not once per day, the press and the blogosphere go nuts over something that just bores the pants off of me. Today it's AOL's deal to buy Bebo, the third-ranked social networking service in the U.S., for $850 million cash.

Seriously, who cares? Not only is AOL an unbelievably doomed company (the latest evidence is the rumored layoff of half of AOL's sales staff), but it's also clear that parent company Time Warner wishes AOL would vanish off the face of the earth.

So, in all likelihood Bebo, which most people don't even know exists, will disappear into a morass of corporate paralysis and rudderless strategy, crater unto itself and nothing good will come of this acquisition. I love Om's take on the deal: "AOL is talking some gobbledygook about marrying AIM, ICQ with a real social network. Whatever!"

I stand corrected. Something good has already come out of this deal -- Bebo's VCs netted $140 million on the deal.

Full post as published by IP Democracy on March 13, 2008 (boomark / email).