AOL buys Bebo, 850 Million for what?

AOL the once high and mighty provider of dial up Internet service now a floundering web portal has purchased Bebo, the third most popular social networking web site for 850 million dollars. While Bebo has a high popularity in Britian, Ireland and New Zealand, in North America social networking is dominated by Myspace and Facebook.

The acquition of Bebo will give AOL a presence in Europe and in New Zealand, it's doubtful that Bebo can gain a foothold in North America, becase of dominant position that Myspace and Facebook in the social networking scene.

AOL is pinning it's hopes on Bebo users adopting AIM as their instant messenging client and AIM users becoming users of Bebo.

The early reaction of technology analysts is that 850 million is a lot for AOL to pay for Bebo. Will AOL get it's money worth. Somehow seems doubtful