AOL has completed its acquisition of Bebo, a global social media network that will form the centerpiece of AOL’s newly created People Networks business unit. Bebo’s CEO Joanna Shields will serve as Executive Vice President of AOL and President of People Networks, which combines Bebo, AIM, ICQ and AOL’s other community platforms and reaches about 80 million users worldwide.

One of the first initiatives for People Networks will be to integrate AOL’s other community applications and tools, including IM, chat and mail functionality into Bebo. It will also let users merge AIM and Bebo profiles so they can use common screen names without re-registering. AIM is the leading instant messaging network in the U.S., with more than 30 million users. ICQ has 28 million active users worldwide.

In addition, People Networks will integrate other recent AOL acquisitions, including widget technology company Goowy Media and social search question and answer service Yedda. Integration plans also include the cross-distribution of AOL and Bebo content and applications to expand the scale of the combined networks.

Only time will tell if AOL’s March acquisition of Bebo for $850 million in cash is all worth it. It may be true that Bebo will give them the traffic but it would be up to AOL to convert it to revenues.

Related posts:

1. Bebo opens its API to developers
2. AIM integrates with Bebo
3. AOL acquires Bebo for $850 million
4. Apple to sell music via Bebo
5. Social networks drive people to buy online, JC Williams Group says

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