After reports emerged yesterday that AOL was in talks to sell their ailing social network Bebo, AOL have officially announced the sale with the buyer being hedge fund Criterion Capital Partners.
The announcement stated that ‘CCP will assume the rights and complete operating control over the global social platform business’. Managing partner of CCP had this to say: ‘The young, highly active user base, revenue history, presence in countries throughout the world and solid technical infrastructure make it an attractive media platform both as a standalone entity and in the context of our broader investment objectives’.
Internet Marketing
The exact terms of the sale have yet to be revealed, but it’s hard to imagine that the also-ran social network sold for a profit. As with many social-based internet marketing ventures of the early to mid 00’s such as MySpace and Faceparty, Bebo was overtaken by Facebook and never really recovered its predominantly UK-centric market share.
It’s difficult to believe that AOL had a positive experience during their time as owners of a social network, but we’ll certainly be interested to see what the new owners Criterion Capital Partners do with their new acquision.
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