AOL this week confirmed that it is no longer interested in maintaining its social networking site Bebo, which the ISP will try to sell or, if no buyers present themselves, shut down completely.

"The strategy we set in May 2009 leverages our core strengths and scale in quality content, premium advertising, and consumer applications, positioning us for the next phase of growth of the Internet," AOL Ventures EVP Jon Brod stated in a memo to employees. "As we evaluate our portfolio of brands against our strategy, it is clear that social networking is a space with heavy competition, and where scale defines success. Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space."

Brod went on to suggest that AOL isn't in a position to throw the kind of cash at Bebo that it would require in order to take on social networking heavyweights like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and others.

AOL, which at the time was a part of Time Warner, acquired Bebo for $850 million in March 2008, but the service never took off the way they had hoped it would.