Michael Birch tweeted that he is looking the "re-invent" the website, which he sold to AOL in 2008. Birch set up Bebo, which can be used to post blogs, photographs, music, videos and questionnaires. The couple reaped $595m after selling their 70pc stake in Bebo to AOL.

AOL offloaded the site to Criterion Capital Partners (CCP) three years ago for a reported figure of less than $10m. Bebo could not keep up with Facebook and Twitter and in 2010 AOL announced it was planning to sell or shut down the site. CCP stepped in, but Bebo filed for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy protection just seven weeks ago.