bebo

Facebook users wreck $8.7 million Spanish beach house

Nicholas Carlson · 05/30/08 12:20PM

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the D6 conference crowd that Facebook is about allowing people to "share information and share themselves." British 16-year-old Jodie Hudson took the lesson to heart. The Times of London reports Hudson posted open invitations to her 16th birthday party on social networks Bebo and Facebook, advertising it as the""party of the year" with "a lot of alcohol [and] an amazing DJ." The party's location? Hudson's parents' $8.7 milllion Spanish vacation home. From across Spain's Costa del Sol, the people came. They didn't behave nicely. One partygoer told the Times:

As AOL-Bebo closes, Yahoo loses its answer to Google-MySpace, Microsoft-Facebook ad deals

Nicholas Carlson · 05/19/08 01:20PM

As AOL closes its $850 million Bebo acquisition today, the biggest loser in the deal — other than the many Time Warner execs who hate the acquisition — has to be Yahoo, which is losing its answer to the partnerships between Google and MySpace and Microsoft and Facebook. When Yahoo won the deal to manage social network Bebo's display and video advertising in the U.K. and Ireland last September, part of Yahoo's triumph was getting an inside shot at Bebo's global business. Bebo CEO Joanna Shields said she was keen to see it happen. Not anymore. Don't expect Bebo to renew its current deal with Yahoo, which expires in September 2009, either.

Researchers say the kids are alright

Melissa Gira Grant · 05/05/08 02:00PM

Mandatory age checks aimed at verifying users may not do much to protect children on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and other social networks. A task force on the behavior of teens on social networks found that the majority of young people who've actually had sex with adults they met online did so without any sort of deception. Does this mean that men in their fifties no longer have to go about pretending they like Hannah Montana if they want the affections of the underaged? No, it just means they're already onto you, dude. (Photo by generated)

Bebo employees claim to welcome AOL bosses, but secretly fear them

Owen Thomas · 04/23/08 07:00PM

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!

Even Bebo's cofounder thinks AOL's $850 million is a joke

Nicholas Carlson · 04/22/08 10:38AM

Poor AOL CEO Randy Falco. He believes that acquiring the social network Bebo for $850 million put AOL in a "leading position" in social networking. Everyone else thinks the buy was a joke — including Bebo cofounder Michael Birch. Asked at an event yesterday about the purchase price, Birch said, "850 million is an interesting number. It's a lot bigger than some numbers and a lot smaller than some numbers. It's not a prime number." Asked how AOL bid itself up to $850 million, Birch said $800 million of it was due Bebo's popularity in Fiji. "Fiji is an up-and-coming market," the Birch told the crowd. Don't wonder why he's so giddy. Birch and his cofounder, his wife Xochi, earned $595 million on the deal.

Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen love Lonelygirl15

Nicholas Carlson · 04/17/08 11:40AM

EQAL, the L.A. Web-video studio which first brought you Lonelygirl15's bedroom antics, today announced it's raised $5 million in funding. The moneymen backing Bree's braintrust include angel investor Ron Conway, Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, reality-TV producer Conrag Riggs, former Google exec Georges Harik, and Spark Capital. Bree, who made the cover of Wired is gone from Lonelygirl15, having been killed off, but the series continues, as does EQAL's KateModern, which now runs on Bebo. EQAL CEO Miles Beckett and president Greg Goodfried told the Wall Street Journal the company is already profitable, having earned money with product placements woven into plotlines. Sounds more plausible than selling online ads.

Billy Bragg argues for musicians' cut of Bebo deal

Jackson West · 03/22/08 09:35PM

"The musicians who posted their work on Bebo.com are no different from investors in a start-up enterprise. Their investment is the content provided for free while the site has no liquid assets. Now that the business has reaped huge benefits, surely they deserve a dividend." [NY Times] (Photo AP/Cheryl Gerber)

AOL brass frankly embarrassed by Bebo buy

Nicholas Carlson · 03/20/08 03:00PM

Why were AOL CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant so secretive about buying Bebo? Because they knew much of AOL management hated the deal, Silicon Alley Insider reports. Executives from AOL subsidiaries Advertising.com, Platform A and Userplane would all have worked to kibosh the $850 million deal if they'd known more about it, so Falco and Grant kept them out of the loop. Supposedly, Grant and Falco pushed ahead with the deal because they think Bebo makes AOL a more attractive acquisition target. One source called the buy "Grant's last stand." Below, SAI's account of precisely what's to hate about Bebo, according to AOL execs.

Bebo buy was AOL CEO's super-duper secret

Nicholas Carlson · 03/14/08 04:20PM

AOL CEO Randy Falco and President Ron Grant — check out the photo and you'll see why the rank and file call them "Smithers and Burns" — kept plans to buy fourth-place social network Bebo secret from AOL's other top execs. Acquisitions talks are often kept quiet, but BoomTown sources say Falco and Grant were more secretive than usual. Can't say we blame them. The exchange — "We're targeting Bebo." "Who?" — has to get old.

Bebo founders earn $595 million, enough to buy a haircut

Nicholas Carlson · 03/14/08 03:00PM

Michael and Xochi Birch met in a London pub back in 2005. Later, the pair decided to launch a social network from their San Francisco living room. About 40 million people signed up and two years later, AOL plunked down $850 million to buy the site. The Birches, who reportedly owned a 70 percent stake in the company, walk away with $595 million. Our advice for the first few dollars spent, below.

Time Warner shareholders, blame LonelyGirl15 for the $850 million Bebo buy

Nicholas Carlson · 03/13/08 05:20PM

If not in traffic or revenues, where has Bebo leapt ahead of MySpace and Facebook? In turning its social network into a TV channel, says NewTeeVee's Liz Gannes. She credits Bebo president Joanna Shields with figuring out the LonelyGirl15 phenomenon in 2007 and hiring the show's creators. Thus was born KateModern, which has been seen some 30 million times, earning exactly $405,000. Expect more of that, the pro-Bebo argument goes, now that the company is tied up with media giant Time Warner. With 2,099 more hits like that, and the deal might pay off.

Michael Arrington desperately wants you to know TechCrunch broke the Bebo story

Jordan Golson · 03/13/08 02:00PM

Head TechCruncher Michael Arrington noted three separate times on Twitter today that TechCrunch had "broken" the AOL buys Bebo news last month. Then he zings BoomTown's Kara Swisher, who'd dismissed the rumors earlier: "hmm didn't someone say Bebo wasn't for sale? http://tinyurl.com/2t5mch" That's great, Michael, but don't break your arm patting yourself on the back. You might need it to write more Twitters. It's also worth noting that Eric Eldon at VentureBeat broke the Bebo story months before Arrington's "exclusive" when he reported that Bebo had hired a bank. See Arrington's entire Twitterpated output below:

In Bebo, AOL landed what News Corp., Google, Yahoo and CBS didn't want

Nicholas Carlson · 03/13/08 01:40PM

Before agreeing to sell to AOL for $850 million, Bebo president Joanna Shields tried to sell the company to News Corp., Google, Yahoo and CBS. Didn't happen. Bebo gets too little traffic in the U.S., sources from those companies told BoomTown. Microscopic revenues probably didn't help Bebo reach its hoped-for $1 billion pricetag, either. In 2006, Bebo revenues were $7 million, with just $3 million in EBITDA — Wall Street's favored measure of operating profit. Last year, total revenues climbed to $20 million, $5 million in EBITDA. So that's a price-to-earnings ratio of 160. Oh, maybe AOL CEO Randy Falco's valuing it on growth, you say? Let's run those numbers.

AOL buys Bebo for $850 million, delusional Falco claims "leading position"

Nicholas Carlson · 03/13/08 07:28AM

AOL CEO Randy Falco just announced to employees that AOL will buy the social network Bebo. News.com reports AOL paid $850 million. In the memo, Falco claims the acquisition "puts us squarely in a leading position in social media at a time when it's growing at a fantastic rate." Incorrect. We may not know what "social media" means, but we know how to define "leading." And the only thing Bebo leads in is down time. As of February 26, Bebo led all social networks with 12 hours and 28 minutes of down time since the beginning of 2008. Here's Falco's delusional memo in full.

Bebo execs, lawyers throw down in London

Owen Thomas · 02/07/08 04:19PM

Why is Jordy Mont-Reynaud, the 24-year-old "mobile guy" for social network Bebo, partying in London with strategy director Evan Cohen, marketing VP Ziv Navoth, and two lawyers? Bebo is rumored to be exploring a sale or investment. Did Bebo just score some dollars from a big wireless company?