AOL acts like Eliot Spitzer, buys Bebo for $850 Million. Time for Big Bro Warners to start some Inditin’

AOL on Thursday announced that it would acquire social media site Bebo for $850 million in cash. The move is intended to better position AOL in the social media space, the company said. Bebo has approximately 40 million users, with a heavy presence in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. In August 2007, Bebo ranked third in the United States behind MySpace and Facebook, according to Datamonitor statistics. In total, AOL will have a social network of approximately 80 million unique users worldwide, AOL said. However, those numbers also includes those using AIM and ICQ, both services AOL owns.