Now thats a pricey Meat-a-ball

just found this article and I'm stupefied that someone would actually pay that much... I guess absurd valuations are not a thing of the past when it comes to the web.

Updated: Bebo's Revenue Numbers: Not So Big; AOL Paid 160 Times EBITDA: Report

By Rafat Ali - Thu 13 Mar 2008 09:28 AM PST

So we reported on the return the investors got, but not on Bebo's actual revenue numbers. Kara digs in and reports on some of the real revenue numbers: Bebo's revenues for 2006 were only $7 million with $3 million in EBITDA...In 2007, the results are still small, with $20 million in revenues and $5 million in EBITDA. Based on these numbers, AOL (NYSE: TWX) paid a huge 42.5 times revenues and 160 times EBITDA.

Even looking at projected numbers (which of course may or may not materialize)--$50 million in revenue and $10 million in EBITDA in 2008; $117 million in revenue and $48 million in revenue in 2009 and $193 million in revenue and $92 million in EBITDA in 2010-- it is a very rich deal, for the founders and investors.

Kara says that the high asking price (around $1 billion) and smaller U.S. presence (big in UK and Europe) made others like News Corp (NYSE: NWS). MSFT and others pass on the deal. Allen and Co was hawking the firm.

Updated: comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) also reports Bebo's increase in total unique visitors in 2008 compared to 2007:

-- In January 2008, Bebo had 22.4 million unique visitors worldwide with visitors averaging more than 3 hours and 30 minutes on the site during the month.
-- In February 2008, Bebo had 4.8 million unique U.S. visitors with visitors averaging 1 hour and 40 minutes on the site during the month.
-- In January 2008, 60 percent of Bebo's traffic came from Europe, followed by North America with 22 percent, and Asia-Pacific with 16 percent.
-- In January 2008, there were 11.4 million unique visitors from the United Kingdom to Bebo, representing the largest proportion of the site's worldwide traffic.