Viacom, the US media group, is considering a bid for Bebo, the social networking site.
The acquisition would represent the latest attempt by Viacom to regain ground lost to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in the social networking and user-generated content realm.
Viacom lost out to its rival in a bidding war last year for MySpace, now the world’s leading social networking site, when News Corp paid $580m (£304m) for the young company. The acquisition caused News Corp’s rivals to look again at the value of sites that allow users to share their own messages, photos, music and videos.
News of Viacom’s interest in Bebo came a day after the media group announced a deal with Google to distribute its content through thousands of niche websites and blogs affiliated to the internet company.
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
