The incredible life of Mike Birch, the Brit who sold Bebo for $850 million before buying it back for $1 million
In 2005, Michael Birch launched social media site Bebo with his wife, Xochi Birch.
Three years after it was founded, in March 2008, the British entrepreneur sold Bebo to US tech giant AOL for $850 million (£650 million), instantly making him one of the richest tech entrepreneurs in the UK.
Bebo started to struggle shortly after the acquisition amidst increasing competition from fast-growing new rivals like Facebook and Twitter.
In July 2013, five years after AOL bought Bebo, Birch bought the company the founded back from digital media investors Criterion Capital Partners, who bought it from AOL for less than $10 million. Birch paid just $1 million (£760,000), saying that he planned to reinvent Bebo into something new.
Birch, 47, has had a colourful life, and has used his Bebo riches to fund a number of quirky projects — including a private members club in San Francisco, the redevelopment of a Devonshire village, and several charitable causes.
Michael Birch was born in Sawston, Cambridgeshire, on July 7, 1970. That makes him 47 years old.
He was raised in Hertfordshire, which is just north of London.
Birch attended Imperial College London from 1998 to 1991. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics.
In 2015, he admitted in an interview with Leaders In that he actually "wasn't very good" at physics.
Birch started his working life in the insurance industry — a sector that he worked in for around a decade.
"That was a complete waste of 10 years really," Birch told Leaders In. "It did make me hungry and it drove me to do something other than insurance."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Contributer : Tech Insider http://ift.tt/2vV2Kr9
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