Due to a lack of clear strategy from AOL, Bebo soon flopped after being overshadowed by rival social networking site Facebook. By 2010 AOL had given up on it and sold Bebo to investment consortium Criterion Capital Partners for between $2.5 million (£1.7m) and $10 million (£6.7m). Criterion Capital Partners brought original founder Michael Birch on board as a strategic adviser, but it didn't work. In 2013 Birch bought back the website he created with his wife for $1 million (£665k) in a bankruptcy auction. Birch sought to reinvent the social network, making a foray into video streaming software, a new arm of the business which was later acquired for $25 million (£18m) in June 2019 by Amazon-owned gaming platform Twitch. During that time the social networking site bebo.com went quiet, but now, seven years after Birch bought back his company, a completely new version of the Bebo website is set to launch later this month. A completely fresh start, as all content from its life as a 2000s social network has been lost, it remains to be seen if it become popular again.
Read more about Michael Birch and other rich people bankrolling entire villages, towns and cities