AOL Annouced today that it will pay $850 million in cash to acquire social media network Bebo, which has total global membership of more than 40 million.

Bebo is one of the largest social networks in Britain, and is ranked number one in Ireland and New Zealand and number three in the U.S, according to AOL.

News Corp. , which also owns the Fox television and movie studios, in addition to newspaper and Internet holdings, bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005, but has estimated the network is now worth more than $15 billion.

Facebook Inc., which owns the Internet’s second-largest social network behind MySpace, now arguably has a $15 billion market value, based on Microsoft’s purchase late last year of a 1.6 percent stake for $240 million.

There is still rumored talks between Yahoo and AOL.