Cocky Bebo founder prepares a comeback Bebo was once the most popular social networking site in the UK, boasting 10.7 million unique users, but as competition from Facebook grew, its founders were forced to find new ways to attract users. Specifically, the Whiteboard became a place where users liked to draw pictures of phalluses, according to Michael Birch, who sold Bebo to AOL in March 2008 for $850 million. Now he's bought it back for a paltry $1 million. "Over the past seven years nearly 1 million of these pictures have been drawn across the site, making it arguably the single biggest repository of illustrated ---- and ----- ever recorded," said Birch in a tongue-in-cheek video on the Bebo website. "I'm not going to take the moral highground," he added. I can't. I drew a few myself. Birch now claims he wants to "wipe the slate clean." While none of the site's new features have been announced, Birch promised that "the new Bebo will be very different from the old one." The tone of the video is clearly tongue-in cheek. Together with his wife, Birch pocketed $595 million from the deal with AOL, and is perhaps entitled to a little levity. However, his publicity stunt is ballsy to say the least. Interested parties can register for the new website now. Those who do will be offered the chance to draw something on the site.