AOL Announces it will Acquire Bebo

From the press release:

AOL is paying $850 Million for Bebo which might seem like a lot for the lesser known network. In 2006 News Corp paid $580 Million for MySpace but according to this New York Times article they now estimate the network to be worth $15 billion. The same article also puts a $15 billion value on Facebook based on Microsoft's $240 Million deal for 1.6% of the company. So it's clear that the frenzy around social networking continues. What's still less clear is exactly what, if anything, this all means in the business world.I'm finding tremendous value in using a Facebook group for community building around Enterprise 2.0 but I don't believe these large consumer platforms are the answer in most business environments. But with the lines between personal and professional worlds continuing to blur, we need to be able to tap the value of our extended social network through sites like Bebo or Facebook but still have the functionality, and privacy we're looking for in business-built social tools. The ability to roam seamlessly between those two worlds with one hybrid profile and set of credentials, now that would useful.