Bebo employees claim to welcome AOL bosses, but secretly fear them
Vested employees at social network Bebo, anticipating the massive stock-options payday they'll get when AOL finalizes its $850 million purchase of their employer, have been passing around stickers that read "I, for one, welcome our new AOL overlords." One was so excited that he sent it to Valleywag — and then rapidly thought better of it, fearing that this leak of sensitive information would somehow jeopardize the merger. Such typical Valley groupthink: Yes, little programmer, the fate of the entire company is riding on your shoulders! Loose lips sink acquisitions!
Seriously, Beboers, If you're going to start sucking up to your new overseers, you should brush up on your corporate culture clashes. The "overlords" line had its start on a Simpsons episode. The Simpsons is produced by an arm of News Corp. AOL is a unit of Time Warner, whose top executives despise News Corp. For maximum obsequiousness, try picking up lines from Friends instead. That TV series was produced by Warner Bros.