AOL selling social networking site Bebo

LOS ANGELES: AOL is paring back its ambitions in the world of online social networking, selling a website called Bebo that it bought two years ago for $850 million.

Bebo, which launched in 2005, has failed to match the huge popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter. AOL said in April that it planned to shut the site down or sell it.

The private investment firm Criterion Capital Partners LLC is snapping it up.

The company did not say how much it is paying, but analysts have speculated that the site would fetch just a fraction of what AOL paid for it.