When AOL (NYSE: AOL) bought Bebo in 2008, it seemed a no-brainer to let AOL Advertising (then Platform-A) do Bebo’s ad sales. But the deal Bebo already inked with Yahoo for that purpose a year earlier was allowed to run on and, with Bebo now parked in AOL’s Ventures unit, that’s not changing…
The deal ended in December but has just be renewed for another six months, MediaWeek reports.
It may be that neither Bebo nor AOL are well staffed enough to do the deal in-house right now. As MW points out, AOL cut 70 percent of Bebo’s staff last year, and several AOL Advertising execs have joined other Time (NYSE: TWX) Warner/AOL departments. But AOL and Bebo will manage the sales in-house after what is a “short-term measure” with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) expires in six months, folding Bebo’s sales staff in to AOL, MW says.
Bebo sales head Simon Podd left for RDF last year.