Media's losses in social networking top $1.5b

Dylan Bushell-Embling
21 Jun 2010
00:00

Social networking sites have now drained over $1.5 billion from the wallets of big media investors, with the latest loser being AOL over its loss-making investment in Bebo.

AOL, which had acquired Bebo just two years ago for $850 million, last week sold out of the site for a price that is rumored to be less than $10 million.

The BBC called AOL's investment in Bebo “one of the worst deals ever made in the dotcom era.”

This is just the latest in a string of losses from media investments in social networking, The Guardianreported.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp last year took a $450 million impairment charge on its $580 million investment in MySpace from 2005.

UK broadcaster ITV meanwhile paid £175 million ($258 million) for Friends Reunited in 2005, then sold it in 2009 for just £25 million.

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