AOL Takes Site from $850 Million To Worthless in Two Years
When AOL paid $850 million for Bebo two years ago, the deal immediately smelled rotten. Now it's looking downright putrid: AOL might write the social network off entirely.
Antilles_Prime
Did you copy an existing popular website and sell it off to a big corporation too dumb to realize what's going on? Twice? Xochi Birch did, first with Ringo and then Bebo. Today's featured commenter, Antilles_Prime, explains the kudos she's earned:
Bebo founder admits her fortune came from ripoffs
Imitation is the sincerest form of getting rich. MySpace got bought early, on the cheap; Facebook has yet to cash out. Michael and Xochi Birch's sale of Bebo, a social network more popular overseas than in the U.S., to AOL for $850 million has been the best social-network cashout to date. And how did they manage it?…
Bebo cofounders buy $29 million cabin on a hill
Well, it's on a hill, but it sure ain't a cabin. Instead, Bebo cofounding couple Michael Birch and Xochi Birch have purchased a $29 million manse in Pacific heights on the corner of Broadway and Broderick. It looks like the Birches purchased the property from one William Mathes, a managing partner at Behrman Capital. …
Barely legal billionaires insist there's tons more money to be made
21-year-old billionaires in the making? To tell the truth, the youngest Forbes has come up with in the past decade was Elon Musk at 27. That was back in 1998, with only $22 million. Musk's face is more lined, but he still isn't a billionaire, even after cashing out from PayPal's sale to eBay. Forbes at least has…
You're invited to Michael and Xochi Birch's Bebo farewell party
Bebo founders Michael and Xochi Birch cashed out in the nine figures with the social network's $850 million purchase by AOL. According to the invite for their farewell party, they'll be retiring to a humble, quiet cabin (which, in the Bay Area housing market, should set them back a million or two). What they aren't…
Even Bebo's cofounder thinks AOL's $850 million is a joke
Poor AOL CEO Randy Falco. He believes that acquiring the social network Bebo for $850 million put AOL in a "leading position" in social networking. Everyone else thinks the buy was a joke — including Bebo cofounder Michael Birch. Asked at an event yesterday about the purchase price, Birch said, "850 million is an…
Bebo founders earn $595 million, enough to buy a haircut
Michael and Xochi Birch met in a London pub back in 2005. Later, the pair decided to launch a social network from their San Francisco living room. About 40 million people signed up and two years later, AOL plunked down $850 million to buy the site. The Birches, who reportedly owned a 70 percent stake in the company,…
