AOL is looking to make itself relevant in the age of social networking, announcing today it will be acquiring social networking site Bebo for somme $850 million in cash. Although Bebo doesn’t have as large a presence in the U.S. as MySpace or Facebook, London-based Bebo boasts more than 40 million users worldwide and is the leading social networking site in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand.
A major push into the social networking world is the latest move in AOL’s broad transition from a dial-up service offering a walled-garden approach to content to an online advertising giant that offers free content and service to attract users. The companies have apparently been working on the deal for the last six months.
