Bebo buyer sees value in SeeSaw
June 21, 2011
US investment house Criterion Capital Partners, the firm that bought Bebo from AOL exactly a year ago, is now looking to snap up another distressed media asset in Arqiva’s SeeSaw.
The buy will save SeeSaw, the failed reinvention of the failed BBC/ITV/C4 Kangaroo project, from closure. No other buyers were found following a strategic review by Ingenious Media. Criterion bought Bebo for about $10 million, AOL had acquired Bebo just two years previously for $850 million.
Arquiva paid £8 million (€9m) for the assets of the Kangaroo venture. Re-launched in February 2010, SeeSaw offered 3,000 hours of free programmes but got no traction in the face of broadcaster run services.