16 June 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor
For the past few months, AOL has been weighing its options and charting a future course for many of its initiatives, including that of Bebo, the social networking site it acquired in 2008.
Mashable is reporting that the web company - a representation of the zeitgeist of the early days of the internet - has found a purchaser for Bebo after a lengthy search. The tech blog accredits the information to a source close to the alleged deal.
Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, announced earlier this year that the web conglomerate would complete an evaluation of the service, which has been deemed a flop by both the company and tech commentators.
Armstrong had previously stated that AOL "had interest from people who are interested in acquiring it, but [didn't] know where that's going to go", at a technology conference in California earlier this month.
This also comes just two months after a company email from head of AOL investments Jon Brod said, "Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space. AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking."
Facing stiff competition from Facebook - far and away the field leader with membership nearing half a billion users - microblogging site Twitter and mainstay MySpace, Bebo failed to differentiate itself under AOL's hand, resulting in redundancies and losses across the board and around the world.
In a clear state of transition, AOL has made a number of moves to maintain relevancy in an increasingly competitive market. It sold off the ICQ messenger system just last month, and now faces a review of its agreements with Google, which currently provides the site's web search results and advertising.
AOL reportedly closing deal to cut Bebo loose
For the past few months, AOL has been weighing its options and charting a future course for many of its initiatives, including that of Bebo, the social networking site it acquired in 2008.Mashable is reporting that the web company - a representation of the zeitgeist of the early days of the internet - has found a purchaser for Bebo after a lengthy search. The tech blog accredits the information to a source close to the alleged deal.
Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, announced earlier this year that the web conglomerate would complete an evaluation of the service, which has been deemed a flop by both the company and tech commentators.
Armstrong had previously stated that AOL "had interest from people who are interested in acquiring it, but [didn't] know where that's going to go", at a technology conference in California earlier this month.
This also comes just two months after a company email from head of AOL investments Jon Brod said, "Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space. AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking."
Facing stiff competition from Facebook - far and away the field leader with membership nearing half a billion users - microblogging site Twitter and mainstay MySpace, Bebo failed to differentiate itself under AOL's hand, resulting in redundancies and losses across the board and around the world.
In a clear state of transition, AOL has made a number of moves to maintain relevancy in an increasingly competitive market. It sold off the ICQ messenger system just last month, and now faces a review of its agreements with Google, which currently provides the site's web search results and advertising.
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