Bebo parent AOL ups profit
The Irish arm of online giant AOL -- which operates the Bebo social-networking site -- increased its pre-tax profits by 50pc to $2.24m to end 2007.
According to accounts recently filed by the US-owned AOL Global Operations Ltd, they show that the company increased its turnover by 37pc in 2007 from $32m to $44m.
The Dublin-based company employed 225 people at the end of 2007, and last March the Time Warner Inc-owned AOL purchased Bebo for $850m.
Recent figures show that the Bebo site was the most searched for term on the Google search engine in Ireland last year.
Originally established by Netscape in 1997 as a European Software Development and Operations Centre, AOL's Irish operation at the Citywest Business Campus, Dublin comprises an R&D centre and a business systems team.
- Gordon Deegan
