Did AOL get a measly $2.5 million for Bebo? That's the price private investment firm Criterion Capital Partners -- which has now acquired the social net -- originally offered to pay AOL, a source tells Thomson Reuters' PEHub blog. "AOL told them to bulk it up a bit, and my source says he would be surprised if it got above $5 million," reports PEHub's Dan Primack. The source also tells Primack that Criterion was the only Bebo bidder. "Whether the final price is $3 million or $5 million or $8 million, it's still a massive loss for …

Twitter is testing a new featured called Promoted Trends, and Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" is coming along for the ride. Twitter already lets advertisers insert messages into users' streams through a program called Promoted Tweets. Likewise, Promoted Trends could serve to monetize its trending feature, which highlights topics popular with its users. "The concept is simple: Advertisers insert their own trend to display on users' home pages," writes The Los Angeles Times. "A big yellow box alerts users that the topic is promoted, not organic ... If you click on the link, it takes you to a …

Recently unveiled cybersecurity legislation is likely pass the Senate this year, according to its backers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. That's despite the Administration's refusal to endorse the bill at a hearing on Tuesday, reports The Hill's Hillicon Valley blog. "At a hearing to discuss the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 on Tuesday, experts testified the bill would significantly upgrade the federal government's approach to protecting its networks," it reports. "[Senate Majority leader Harry] Reid (D-Nev.) had been very clear at least to me that he really wants to pass the …

In April, social network platform provider Ning said it was doing away with its free product, and cutting more than 40% of its staff. Determined to survive, Ning then rolled out new paid models for its platform, Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning Mini, in May. Now, the company is announcing two partnerships, with branded product creator CafePress and social gaming startup Heyzap, to offer new monetization options to its network creators. "Custom CafePress shops can now be integrated directly into Ning Networks, offering creators the opportunity to sell branded products, like mugs, t-shirts and more, to members and fans," …

Why did author and consultant Peter Bregman just return his iPad? Because it's "too good," "too easy," and "too accessible," not to mention, "too fast and too long-lasting," Begman explains in the Harvard Business Review. "For the most part, it does everything I could want ... Which, as it turns out, is a problem." Why? Quite simply, because the device was quickly taking over Bregman's life. "Any free moment becomes a potential iPad moment." Furthermore, he argues that the device virtually illuminates the potential for consumption-less downtime, which, for Bregman, is when he does his best thinking. …

If anything can slow the mobile revolution, it's the threat of cancer. Citing that threat exactly, San Francisco has voted to impose "roughly the same cautionary standards for cellphones as for fatty food or sugary soda," reports The New York Times. The progressive city will now require all retailers to display the amount of radiation each phone emits. "The law -- believed to be the first of its kind in the nation -- came despite a lack of conclusive scientific evidence showing that the devices are dangerous, and amid opposition from the wireless telephone industry, which views …

AOL has found a buyer for Bebo, reports Mashable, citing "sources close to the deal." Two years after dropping $850 million on the social network, AOL announced plans to either sell or scrap the unit back in April. Wall Street Journal reporter Anupreeta Das tweeted that Criterion Capital close to buying Bebo, but the tweet was quickly taken down. "We're not yet sure who the buyer is, though the timing makes sense," writes Mashable in reference to that fact that AOL said it wanted rid of Bebo this year.In April, the news was included in an annual …

Twitter is admitting that, "From a site stability and service outage perspective, it's been Twitter's worst month since last October." So, what's going on with top microblogging service, and what does it mean for the millions of consumers -- including many marketers and media types -- who rely on Twitter to broadcast their thoughts? Says Twitter: "We're working through tweaks to our system in order to provide greater stability at a time when we're facing record traffic ... As we go through this process, we have uncovered unexpected deeper issues and have even caused inadvertent …

Twitter's location-based Places feature was first announced back in April, but going live, today, and industry watchers are taking notice. Now, "Twitter users can tag their posts with their precise location -- like Alcatraz or the Columbus Circle Whole Foods -- and people can search for all the posts written from a specific location," reports The New York Times' Bits blog. Envisioning a sort of real-world Google AdSense, Bits adds: "Location information could potentially be used by marketers who want to reach shoppers in a competitor's store, for example, or people near a certain restaurant." …

Data marketplace Infochimps just debuted its API, which offers up access to its Twitter and U.S. Census datasets, "giving developers, researchers, and marketers the ability to take advantage of Infochimps' data without requiring the computational resources necessary to query the information from billions of tweets and hundreds of millions of U.S. households," writes ReadWriteWeb. Pricing for the API is based on data usage and service, ranging from a free "Baboon" tier with a limit of 100,000 API calls per month to a "Golden Ape" tier that costs $4000 per month with a limit of 15 million monthly …