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Quote:Time Warner's AOL will buy the social network Bebo for $850 million in cash, acquiring a worldwide user base of 40 million as well as a developer-friendly platform. Bebo was known to be shopping for a buyer, but the move came as something of a surprise because the social networking site already has a relationship with Yahoo, which won a contract last fall to deliver advertising to it...

Quote:This is the story of a couple of struggling computer entrepreneurs who met in a London bar and moved to California without enough money to pay for their accommodation. Michael Birch and his wife Xochi are now expected to make hundreds of millions of pounds from the sale of one of the hottest properties on the internet.

With 40m users worldwide, the Bebo social networking site created by the 37-year-old Brit and his 36-year-old Californian wife in 2005 is ranked as the second most popular in the UK and the third globally, after MySpace and Facebook. Its sale last week for £417m to the AOL multi-media company will net the Birches some £295m for their 70% stake.

Not that money was ever the be-all and end-all, Birch always maintained. Just as well, for the couple were almost broke when they moved to San Francisco in 2002...