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Bebo, launched in 2005, has failed to match the huge popularity of Facebook and Twitter, although it has been strong in foreign markets, including Britain. AOL tried to take advantage of that to drive traffic to its other ad-supported Web properties, but the site has been losing ground in the past year.

AOL, which has operations in the Washington area, said Wednesday that the buyer is the private investment firm Criterion Capital Partners. The California firm did not say how much it is paying, but analysts have speculated that the site would fetch a small fraction of what AOL paid for it.

-- Associated Press

STOCKS

Northrop Grumman to repurchase shares

Northrop Grumman said Thursday that it has approved a plan to buy back up to 11 percent of the company's shares.

The Los Angeles aerospace and electronics manufacturer said its board has authorized it to spend $2 billion on the repurchase of common stock.

"Today's increase in our share repurchase authorization demonstrates our continuing commitment to a balanced cash deployment strategy that drives value creation by investing for the future, managing risk, and distributing cash to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends," Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman's chief executive and president, said in a statement.

The company has about 300 million shares outstanding; its shares rose 91 cents to $61.99 in Thursday premarket trading.