Michael Birch, the co-founder of Bebo, is investing money into the same social network that he sold to AOL for $850 million. The amount he is investing is undisclosed. Birch is also becoming an advisor in the company. AOL had written off Bebo and sold it to Criterion Capital last summer for a much smaller amount (pegged at around $2.5-$5 million). “There is a huge opportunity to re-invent Bebo, to approach social from a different perspective and create a viable alternative to the now established market leaders,” said Birch. [AllThingsD]

AOL is selling social network Bebo for a small price. AOL bought Bebo for $850 million in 2008 and the numbers being thrown around for the sale is between $5-$10 million. The buyer is expected to be Criterion Capital Partners. Selling the social network at a low price will allow AOL to write off the full purchase price for tax reasons. [WSJ]

AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) EVP Jon Brod sent over a memo to employees regarding the reason why the company is interested in shutting down Bebo. The core reason is that Bebo is a business that has been declining and it would require too much of an investment in an effort to compete. Below if the full memo [BusinessInsider]:

Bebo President Joanna Shields left AOL last May before the People Networks division was separated.  Now Shields is joining Facebook in a sales and business development VP role in the EMEA region.  Shields will continue to work at Shine View as a non-executive chairperson too.  Shields will be reporting to Facebook global sales VP Mike Murphy. [paidContent]

AOL social network subsidiary Bebo.com has named a new head of global operations, Stephane Panier.  Panier will be responsible for scaling the social network’s media operations and advancing the global reach of the service.  Currently Bebo has 24 million users around the world.  Panier was previously the VP and COO of Bebo.  Panier will be reporting to Jon Brod, the EVP of AOL Ventures.

Before joined Bebo in January 2009, Panier worked at Google for 6 years in finance and operations positions.  “Stephane is a proven strategist and operator with executive experience from some of the world’s leading brands and businesses,” stated Brod. “He is the ideal leader to build on Bebo’s existing successes, to chart a course for its future, and to execute against that vision.”

Joanna Shields was an EVP and the President of People Networks at AOL.  She came to the company through AOL’s acquisition of Bebo.  Shields plans to move back to London and pursue other entrepreneurial interests.  Shields was President of Bebo at the time of the acquisition.

This announcement comes at a time where AOL is preparing to spin off from Time Warner as an independent, public company.  When Bebo was acquired for $850 million, they were a much smaller social network than MySpace and Facebook.  MySpace was acquired for $580 million back in July 2005 and Facebook is planning for an IPO several years down the road.

Below is the memo that Joanna left to her team at AOL:

AOL sent out a press release today stating that Virgin Media has joined the Open Mobile initiative set up by Bebo, the social network that was acquired for $850 million in March 2008.  The Open Mobile initiative is a way for mobile operators, developers, and manufacturing companies to build mobile versions of the Bebo social networks with their brand on it.

As part of the agreement, Virgin will be creating the Bebo Open Mobile Internet website with Virgin’s brand on it and they will also be putting bookmarks for Bebo on the pre-releases of their devices.  Virgin customers will be able to easily access Bebo’s mobile services right out of the box.

“Virgin Media’s decision to embed Bebo in their customer experience plays to both of our strengths and joins two great brands. In partnership with Virgin Media, we will be able to deliver great mobile content to more users in the UK,” stated Sean Kane, VP of Mobile at AOL People Networks.

[via gomonews]

As of 2006 about 44.3 million Hispanics live in the U.S.  That is about 15% of the total population.  Bebo wants to capitalize on that by launching a Bebo portal for Latinos living in the U.S.  Media partners involved in this project include Hearst and AOL Latino.  The Bebo U.S. Latino website will have the latest in music, entertainment, videos, photos, polls, quizzes, surveys, and other content that is syndicated from MisQuinceMag.com.

“Expanding into new markets is a key pillar of our growth strategy, and we see huge potential for the growing Latino audience in the U.S. Our platform allows users to connect with other users, entertainment and brands, both globally and locally. The richness of our experience lies in the user’s ability to express him or herself – as evidenced in our new Lifestory feature – and in the ability to connect to people, media and brands through the Lifestream and our Open Media Platform,” stated Nicole Vanderbilt, VP of the International division at Bebo.

The launch of this new protal was made in conjunction with AOL’s new Spanish language resource guide TecnoPadres.com.  Advertising for the new portal will be provided by AOL’s Platform A division.  The full press release is available after the jump.