Internet giant AOL is buying Bebo for 850 million dollar. Bebo has around 40 million users and is very popular in the United Kingdom and New Sealand. Bebo ranks as the UK’s most engaging social network with users spending an average of 33 minutes on the site per usage day. With 40 million users Bebo is way smaller then Facebook and MySpace, but still a pretty good purchase. AOL also owns AIM & ICQ, two very popular IM services.

As part of its international growth plans, AOL has launched 17 international web sites over the last year and has plans to expand to 30 countries outside the United States by the end of 2008. In addition, AOL teamed up with HP last September to include localized versions of the AOL.com portal and other AOL services as the default setting on HP computers shipped in the United States and around the world.

Bebo, which has announced plans to launch in five countries this year, will be featured prominently in AOL’s international expansion efforts after the deal is closed.

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