Comments on: Bebo’s VC makes $140 million after AOL sale

By: Damn Skippy

Damn Skippy — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:51:25 +0000

Hey William, at least the founders of Bebo gave us a crotch shot!

By: alanp

alanp — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:03:29 +0000

I’d say Fred’s numbers are on the “optimistic” side

They add up to e72m pa, which given 2007 revenues of c e13m and “management’s guidance” that they would hit $117m in 2009 (ie c Fred’s e72m) makes Fred’s data about right for 2 years hence.

But, since AOL paid in cash without any earnout or future performance based element in the deal (or none has been reported to my knowlede anyway, there may be one), then they are in effect valuing it at today’s money which makes it at c 43 x 2007 annual revenues.

Net net, great win for Bebo, but imho it makes AOL look a tad desperate and a tad like dumb money.

By: Mr P

Mr P — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:02:23 +0000

Oh William one more thing…
When your own social network becomes popular and the server and bandwidth costs rise above any revenue you are making, how are you going to raise money to keep it going?

You could ask your members for a donation, but many may just leave and go to a free site.

By: Mr P

Mr P — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:58:17 +0000

@William.
Grow up.
They took the initial risk of starting and running the site and offered a great service. All of which was free.

By: Jof

Jof — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:18:27 +0000

@William.
So presumably the Bebo members should be really pissed that they were supplied a service that allowed them to make new friends (for free), discover and view content (for free), express themselves (for free) and basically entertain themselves (for free) for as long as they wanted to be entertained.

I’m not sticking up for Bebo (I really couldn’t care less either way) but it seems like you want the moon on a stick and then some.

By: william

william — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:51:02 +0000

What a crime. A robbery and a mockery.
Will any of the members and content creators for Bebo receive anything for their contribution ? No. The members have created the value with their content and their clicks….and once again they will receive not a dime….and they will be expected to continue this for the next “Owner”….hmmm…Work for free raise the value of a company to 850 million…..how can this be seen as fair….the great web 2.0 share cropping scheme continues to roll….and the media continue to ignore the issue ….Has any and will anyone ask the founders, the VC, or AOL if they are going to give any of the members and content creators pay or equity for there help in raising the value of the company?

40 Million Uniques
40 page views per user per day
48 billion page views a month
50% monetizable inventory
25% inventory sellout
1 ad per page
€1 average CPM
current monthly revenue €6 million per month ?
potential revenue if fully maximised of €50M per month ?

By: LawrenceD

LawrenceD — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:46:08 +0000

40m members – not 40m uniques per month. And 48bn page views per month? no way. more likely to be a yearly figure

By: jas

jas — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:18:41 +0000

This is not a u.k based business it’s an american based business just because one of the founders is british thats about it,they use american spellings and because they could not crack america like facebook and myspace they pretend and the media fall for it to focus on the u.k although they are american run and based.
Myspace and facebook still lead above them both in the america and in the U.K and thats a fact but not bad for finishing third place $850 million.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:17:39 +0000

But how can this be…I just read this…

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/03/13/2007-a-bumper-year-for-tech-exits-reality-bites-in-2008/