Hey guys, you ever lie awake at night and wonder what’s up with Bebo? Yeah, me neither. AOL did this one time, and now it’s paying dearly for it – to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
I guess I should explain what Bebo is, for the less-informed here: Bebo is… jeez, what’s the best way to put it. Imagine, like… imagine MySpace, only no one cares. No, wait, bad example. Imagine MySpace, but everyone cares even less. That might be difficult to grasp at first, but just chew on it for a moment.
Anyway, in an attempt to jump on social networking back in 2008, AOL proudly laid down $850 million (that’s eight hundred and fifty million) to… actually, I dunno what they did with Bebo. Certainly not anything worthy of note.
Now, it’s been confirmed that AOL has resold Bebo to Criterion Capital Partners for less than ten million dollars – some sources say as low as 2.5 million. TWO-DOT-FIVE THOUSAND THOUSAND. That’s just really… really… ouch, man. Nevertheless, Criterion states it will “assume the rights and complete operating control over the global social platform business”. Good luck, guys. I hear Bebo’s big in Ireland or something. Try there, maybe.
It’s not all bad news for AOL, though – according to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, “For AOL, the transaction will also create a meaningful tax deduction, which should allow us to more effectively manage our tax strategy.” Damn right, Tim. Phew. I hope you’ve learned from this.
[Via TechCrunch]
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