Online media firm AOL has announced it is selling the social networking site Bebo to a private investment firm in California.
Analysts suspect AOL has sold Bebo for far less than the £570m it paid in 2008
No price was disclosed regarding the deal with Criterion Capital Partners (CCP), but analysts speculated it would be well under the $850m (£570m) it paid for the site in 2008.
CCP said Bebo was a "highly attractive" investment due to its "young, highly active user base" and global presence.
Three years ago the site was the most-visited social networking site in the UK, but fell behind after Facebook opened up its services to users beyond college networks.
It now ranks fourth behind Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, attracting just 1.19% of all social networking visits in the UK, according to data service Experian Hitwise.
In the US it has fared even worse, dropping well out of the top 10 social media websites.
However, CCP's head Tim Armstrong was undeterred by the challenge of taking on Bebo.
"Criterion Capital Partners are specialists in facilitating growth plans and turnarounds, and are well placed to drive Bebo's effort to strengthen its foothold within the highly competitive social networking arena," he said.
Neither CCP nor AOL would comment on the exact terms of the deal, which sees the private equity firm take over the rights and operating control of the business immediately.
US technology blog TechCrunch, quoting an unidentified source "close to AOL", suggested it was selling Bebo for "$10m or less".
AOL revealed in April it planned to either sell or close down the business.
It said then: "Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space."
BY Hazel Tyldesley, SNO
