People Search Digest

Yesterday morning AOL employees received a notice in their inboxes from CEO, Randy Falco, announcing the acquisition of popular social networking site, Bebo. Tensions have been rising, as AOL and Bebo have been at the negotiation table since September 2007. Many potential suitors, like Microsoft and Google, have come and gone, leaving Bebo open for the AOL merge.

AOL told press that their goal is to join AIM and ICQ with a proper social network, but is basing much of their social networking strategy around AIM. The integration of Bebo will allow users to communicate both synchronously and asynchronously, so that people can express themselves via instant messenger, while maintaining existing relationships. The average AIM user has about 100 buddies, with whom he or she will be able to share and distribute media, once the Bebo platform is in place.

Bebo’s current president, Joanna Shields will continue to run the Bebo side of things, but will now report to AOL president, Ron Grant. The deal must clear U.S. and EU antitrust issues before it can close. Regardless, it’s clear that AOL is making great strides to rise above the dial up broadband provider stigma and take the company to new levels. Recently, they have been releasing promising and innovative products and have been making smaller acquisitions under the radar. We look forward to seeing what else AOL has in store for us in the next year.