Rumor from across the pond: Yahoo wants Bebo
Acquisition gossip season rolls on. The U.K.-based newspaper The Telegraph reported Sunday that Yahoo is rumored to be eyeing social networking site Bebo for as much as $1 billion. (Compare that to the $580 million that News. Corp forked over for MySpace in 2005.)
Bebo's huge in the U.K., but here in the States it's still dwarfed by MySpace, despite seemingly constant predictions that it's the next big thing.
Yahoo offered up a similar offer for Facebook last year, which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg famously turned down. The longtime Web presence already has a few social networking functions in the form of its Yahoo 360 profile service, but that's more or less off the radar in the face of sites like Bebo, Facebook, and MySpace.
According to the Telegraph article, Bebo has already turned down several acquisition bids.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline.
