Can AOL return from near-oblivion by entering the hot social-networking arena? Once the darling of Wall Street but more recently known as the burying ground for Netscape, date Warner’s AOL is throwing its hat in the ring with an $850 million acquisition of Bebo.

Social networking is dominated by MySpace, owned by News Corp., and Facebook, which has a minority investment from Microsoft. AOL says Bebo — which stands for “blog early, blog often” — is the No. 3 social network in the U.S. and No. 1 in Ireland and New Zealand.

But No. 3 is a faraway way from No. 1. News Corp. estimates MySpace’s value at $15 billion, and Microsoft’s $240 million investment in Facebook last year gave founder Mark Zuckerberg’s company a $10 billion value. The $850 million value for Bebo barely registers in those elevations.

Building on Platform-A

AOL is betting Bebo will be the cornerstone of its resurgence as an advertising-based company. “Bebo

is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal-communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media,” said AOL CEO Randy Falco.

Falco said AOL was attracted to Bebo’s success and its potential for further growth; its vision of a “truly social web”; and the “monetization opportunities that leverage Platform-A across our combined global audience.”

AOL spent $1 billion acquiring a portfolio of online advertising companies, including ADTECH, buy.at, Lightningcast, Quigo, TACODA and Third Screen Media, to create its Platform-A advertising system.

Executive Departures

The Bebo purchase comes just a day after AOL announced the departure of Curt Viebranz as head of Platform-A. Viebranz came to AOL as part of its purchase of TACODA and is being replaced by Linda Clarizio, president of Advertising.com, an advertising network that forms a key part of Platform-A. Two other Platform-A executives departed in the past month.

Noting the executive shake-up, John…

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