AOL denies reports of Bebo sale as valuation plummets

by Staff, Brand Republic 30-Jan-09, 11:30

LONDON - Social networking website Bebo has shrugged off rumours that parent company AOL is planning to sell the service, less than a year after it was acquired for $850m (£417m).

Bebo spokespersons have called the rumours "ridiculous" and "absolutely not true".

The reports have speculated that AOL is contemplating offloading the service for as little as $200m (£140m).

When AOL acquired the site in March 2008, Bebo was being touted as an excellent source of "engagement marketing" and a rival to Facebook, but the site has since underperformed.

According to comScore, Bebo has 40m registered users, mainly in Europe and Australia. In comparison, Facebook as 140m users, while market leader MySpace has 250m.

In December, AOL announced that it was integrating the service with its Social Inbox platform, which organises feeds from several social networks such as Twitter and Flickr.

The website also allows users to integrate instant messaging services, such as AOL's messenger, into their profiles. It is also the destination for popular online show 'Kate Modern'.

AOL said that it plans to keep developing Bebo and will roll out new integrated features this month and the next.

This week it was announced that Mark Charkin, Bebo's global vice-president, would be leaving the company without a job to go to.

Bebo's founder, Michael Birch also announced plans to invest in a new business professional social network to rival LinkedIn and Xing.