BeBo & AOL: Someone Late To The Party?
As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, Bebo has been acquired by AOL for $850 million. Come again? Bebo, the #5 social news site for $850 million? Didn’t NewsCorp pay just $580 million for MySpace, the dominant #1 player.
Well yeah, but a lot has happened since that deal went down, and valuations for social networking sites are through the roof. In fact, $850 million is actually a pretty good deal considering the size and growth of Bebo. If anything, it makes Rupert Murdoch’s initial acquisition, MySpace, look exponentially sweeter. However, AOL, like NewsCorp and Microsoft, is getting a valuable partner in the social networking game. Bebo gives AOL (TimeWarner) a valued channel through which to market its content and extends its reach further across the globe. After all, Bebo’s real cult following is abroad, not stateside. For Bebo, the deal is equally sweet - it’s getting loads of cash and a mountain of resources/content to draw from in expanding its own operations.
As such, I can’t help but give this deal my whole-hearted stamp of approval. Boom. Stamped.
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