

AOL To Sell Bebo For Around $10 Million - aresant
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/16/aol-to-sell-bebo-for-around-10-million/

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The Birch family made out handsomely in this whole fiasco, leaving shortly
after Bebo was acquired. Everyone else got fleeced.

This deal reminds me of the many horrible deals done at the beginning of the
decade. It's not a surprise that AOL never learned their lesson.

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rythie
Who got fleeced exactly? No one force them to buy it. Seems like Aol destroyed
all the value the site had by losing to the competition.

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maukdaddy
AOL shareholders didn't get fleeced, but certainly were done a huge disservice
by AOL mgt. NO way in hell that Bebo was EVER worth $750m.

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rwhitman
Michael Birch is one brilliant/lucky dude.. 70% stake in an $850mil exit and
the thing goes from slump to garbage bin within two years of his leaving it.
Epic

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pinko
Reminds of this great graphic ("The AOL- Bebo Value transfer equation"):
[http://www.broadstuff.com/archives/790-The-AOL-Bebo-Value-
tr...](http://www.broadstuff.com/archives/790-The-AOL-Bebo-Value-transfer-
equation.html)

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Nwallins
> _Here’s why – complicated corporate tax rules will let Aol write off the
> full purchase price of Bebo if they declare it worthless and abandon the
> asset._

...yet another perverse outcome of overly-complicated, micro-managed tax
codes. The law of unintended consequences strikes again!
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences>

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malloreon
I'll catch it on the rebound for $1K

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JMiao
still overpriced by, um, $10 million.

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olegk
EPIC FAOL

