AOL: Bebo not worth additional investment; Sale or closure coming soon

Summary: AOL said today that it will either sell or shutter social networking site Bebo instead of investing further to compete.

By Sam Diaz for Between the Lines | April 6, 2010 -- 13:36 GMT (06:36 PDT)

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AOL confirmed today that social networking site Bebo will either be sold or shuttered, a victim of a highly competitive landscape and a parent company that doesn't want to invest to compete. The company will determine its fate by the end of May.

AOL, then part of Time Warner, bought Bebo for $850 million in March 2008, but struggled to build a name for itself outside of the UK, where it's one of the most popular social networking sites. In the U.S., it never really gained any traction. In a memo to employees, the company said:

Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space

It said that AOL is not in a position to "further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking."

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All social networks eventally die

Unfortunately all social networks eventually die from lack of proper management. Its very tough to keep users interested. Most are younger people who move from site to site because they lose interests or something better comes along. Their may come a time when privacy issues eventually kill social networks as we know them now.