It's reassuring to have prejudices confirmed; politicians are corrupt, blondes have more fun, and AOL is hopeless. The former internet giant yesterday confirmed the sale of Bebo – a social networking site bought for $850m in 2008 – but did not disclose the likely nominal sale price. Such value destruction is less than the worse deal of the century, the dotcom era merger with Time Warner, but that is small consolation to shareholders given AOL stock is down a 10th since December's spin-out.
偏見得到證實,總是件令人安心的事情。比如,政客都是貪贓舞弊的,金發女郎總是更逗人樂,而美國在線(AOL)則是徹底沒救。這家前互聯網巨頭昨日證實,將出售2008年以8.5億美元收購的社交網站Bebo,但并未透露可能的名義售價。這比買賣對該公司價值的破壞程度雖然比不上本世紀最糟糕的那筆交易——AOL在互聯網繁榮時期與時代華納(Time Warner)的合并——但自去年12月雙方黯然分手后,AOL股價已跌去十分之一,因此最新的交易對AOL股東而言也算不上什么安慰。