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AOL acquires Bebo for 850 million
- omnipath 19y agoI thought AOL didn't really have any extra cash laying around? Where did they get the money?
- DarrenStuart 19y agoI dunno they seem to be buying a lot of stuff recently so they must have some cash. Don't forget its time warner as well isn't it?
- omnipath 19y agoYeah, apparently, according to wikipedia, Time Warner is thinking about splitting 'AOL internet access and adversting businesses into two, with the possibility of later selling the internet access division.' So they haven't done it yet.
- xirium 19y agoYou don't need cash to acquire companies ( http://www.billparish.com/citigrouppyramidintro.html http://www.billparish.com/citigrouppyramidintro.html ).
- wallflower 19y agoAOL has some cash flow - about 9 million subscribers paying $10-$25 for Internet access monthly (http://tinyurl.com/ytnz3d http://tinyurl.com/ytnz3d)
- henning 19y agoso they're roughly on par with World of Warcraft, except they have a much weaker brand?
- samwise 19y agokinda sad when you put it that way.
- alaskamiller 19y agoexcept, you know, not... when you factor in their push into online advertising and consolidation/acquisitions as well as their publications.
- fleaflicker 19y agoAOL is a massive company desperate to stay relevant. A good look at their internal dysfunction and struggles over "Platform A" was published yesterday in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/technology/12aol.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/technology/12aol.html
- staticshock 19y agoi've tried reading up on "engagement advertising", but i continue not to understand it. it seems like a fairly empty buzzword for saying that the ads will be micro-targeted (maybe via social networking information you've revealed, like facebook's attempts?), which, to my knowledge, is a concept that hasn't seen much success yet.
- poppysan 19y agoEngagement advertisement is an idea that I think successfully addresses the problem of click fraud. Instead of just measuring clicks or impressions, they would base the results on a desired user experience. Hard to do and track also, imho.
- iamelgringo 19y agoHmmm... so, AOL paid $850 M for 3.5 million visits a month. That means that they're paying about $250 a user. At the same valuation per user, that values Facebook at a paltry $ 7 billion. Another thought... if users are worth $250 a piece, maybe my blog that has 100 readers a month might actually be worth $25,000! Anyone wanna buy it? :)
- ojbyrne 19y agoThat's US visitors. They're based in the UK and that's where they've been most successful. Techcrunch says 22 million uniques.
- aneesh 19y agoWant to pay me $249 to read your blog? :) On a more serious note, the average facebook user spends more time on facebook (and views more pages, ads, etc) than the average reader spends on your blog.
- xirium 19y agoThis type of valuation has been mentioned before ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121206 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121206 ). Yahoo purchased GeoCities for US$1100 per user. Microsoft purchased a stake of Facebook for US$300 per user. So, AOL buying Bebo for US$250 per user is a relative bargain. Regarding your blog, its only worth US$25000 if you can sell it. Otherwise it is worth nothing.
- aston 19y ago>> Microsoft purchased a stake of Facebook for US$300 per user and an exclusive advertising deal. fix'd.
- whacked_new 19y agoAs per the YouTube acquisition, perhaps there will be a new surge in social networks! The talent pool proceeds to filter itself.