This is interesting. Mashable reports that Aol has found a buyer for its floundering social network Bebo. Aol said earlier this year that if it couldn’t find a buyer, it would shut the site down.

The only problem is that Aol won’t confirm any sort of deal, but as Peter Kafka at All Things D notes, they aren’t exactly denying it either. In a story with the headline “Aol Won’t Deny It Has Sold Bebo,” Kafka gets a non-statement from Aol PR, telling him “We haven’t announced anything.”

Ok then.

It certainly sounds like Aol is close to selling Bebo, but the non-denial seems to indicate that it hasn’t been signed, sealed and delivered quite yet.

The big question: who is buying it, and for how much? Aol bought Bebo for $850 million in 2008, and it is safe to say it will be lucky to get back a fraction of that in any sale.

Update: the Wall Street Journal reports that the deal is “close” and that the buyer is private equity firm Criterion Capital Partners. The sale price is believed to be between $3-30 million. Ouch.