Biz Brief: AOL Sells Bebo to Criterion Capital

After a brief two-year run with Bebo, AOL (AOL) announced Thursday it sold its social networking site to Criterion Capital Partners. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but talk around town is that Bebo was unloaded for somewhere within throwing range of $2.5 million, according to a report in Private Equity Hub, or peHub.com. That's a paltry sum compared to the $850 million that AOL spent to acquire the company, at a time when social networking was hot and the industry looked kinder on competitors to Facebook and MySpace.

Criterion is immediately taking over Bebo's operations and plans to retain its San Francisco headquarters. Its managing partner, Adam Levin, noted in a statement that Bebo would do just fine as a stand-alone company, or mashing it together with its other broader investment plans.