The founders of social network Bebo, British couple Michael Birch and his wife Xochi, announced that they have bought back the social network for one million dollars, five years after they sold it to AOL for $850 million.
Michael Birch wants to revive the social network Bebo.com, which in May was placed under bankruptcy protection by the previous owner of the company, the American investment fund Criterion Capital Partners. Birch has announced Monday on Twitter that Monkey Inferno, his investment company based in San Francisco, bought Bebo for a million dollars.
“We just bought back Bebo for $1m. Can we actually re-invent it? Who knows, but will be fun trying,” said Birch on his Twitter account.
Social network Bebo, founded by Michael Birch and his wife Xochi in 2005, was sold to AOL in 2008 for $ 850 million. At that time, Bebo was ranked third among social networks, with 40 million users worldwide. But Bebo has lost ground to the Facebook social networking site and ended up being sold by AOL to the U.S. investment fund Criterion Capital Partners in 2010, for just $10 million. The social network Bebo will be “re-invented” by a team of 21 people.
“We’re excited about the ambitious challenge of bringing Bebo back, and couldn’t be happier to announce that the product will be back in the hands of the founders. We know the odds are stacked against us but we love challenges and the Bebo users deserve better that what they have received in the past few years, “said Shaan Puri, chief executive of the Monkey Inferno. The $1m purchase covered all of the assets of Bebo Inc (hardware, software, intellectual property etc). In simple terms, we now own the website clear of any other shareholders.”
He added: “Needless to say, we are ecstatic to have the site back in the hands of the founders! It will be a huge challenge to reinvent Bebo, but we’re up for the challenge.”
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