• D: All Things Digital , Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:30 AM

TechCrunch on Tuesday published a lengthy article about AOL's acquisition of Bebo, and how the Time Warner unit vastly overpaid for the social network and is now considering selling it. Bebo representatives tell VentureBeat the report is "absolutely ridiculous" because Bebo is a key part of AOL's expansion strategy.

Even though AOL definitely overpaid for Bebo (the social net cost $850 million), it would be odd for the Web giant to jump ship now, especially when Bebo just launched a new user interface last month. The new "Social Inbox," which lets users read multiple email accounts and social networking accounts from one place, has been well-received by Bebo users, a company spokesperson tells VentureBeat, and more product announcements will be forthcoming.

Kara Swisher agrees that AOL "woefully overpaid for (Bebo), especially if you look back from the current dire economic environment and also now realize that social networking advertising is a little bit harder to get going than promised (a shock, I know)." But, she adds that numerous Time Warner and AOL sources deny the company is now for sale, including TW CEO Jeffrey Bewkes himself.

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