One easily forgets
old friends amidst the new

AOL has officially closed its $850 million acquisition of UK-based social networking site Bebo.

The parent company plans to integrate Bebo with other proprietary platforms, including AIM and sleepy chat service ICQ. The contingent of community services shall be part of a new business unit dubbed People Networks — which will comprise 80 million unique users on both sides of the Atlantic, reports the Washington Post.

President Joanna Shields of Bebo will serve as president of People Networks and corporate executive VP.

As with AOL's niche properties, Platform-A will manage advertising on People Networks. The one relationship out of its jurisdiction is an existing ad liaison between Bebo and Yahoo, spanning Australia, Ireland and the UK.

The Bebo/Yahoo relationship ends in Fall 2009 and will likely not be renewed by Bebo's new regime.