MySpace For Sale!

[Kristopher]

A handful of venture capital firms and other companies are expected to make News Corp. offers for one of its most disappointing properties: MySpace.

News Corp. declared it was ready to sell MySpace in an earnings call in February. At that time, in spite of significant layoffs and a massive redesign, the company “recorded a $275 million pre-tax charge for the impairment of goodwill related to the Digital Media Group and an organizational restructuring at MySpace.”

Now, The Wall Street Journal, which shares a parent company with the faltering social network, is reporting that News Corp. is attempting to get at least $100 million out of the sale. It names Redscout Ventures, Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Criterion Capital Partners LLC, which also owns Bebo, as potential buyers.

News Corp. purchased MySpace in 2005 for $580 million. At that time, the year-and-a-half-old Facebook hadn’t even acquired the Facebook.com URL and recorded a net loss of $3.63 million for the year. Even as late as 2007, Facebook’s traffic was disappointing when compared to traffic on MySpace.

But all that changed quickly. MySpace users began abandoning ship for Facebook and, in late 2009, site traffic took a dive from which it never really recovered. By 2010, even relative upstart Twitter was getting more traffic than MySpace.

Even though the network has pivoted to become an entertainment destination (in a nod to the bands and filmmakers that have clung to the platform out of habit or necessity), MySpace is still losing ground in these creative industries.

We’ll continue to keep an ear to the ground for MySpace news. Do you think News Corp. will find a bidder to meet its $100 million asking price?

What You Think About It Being For Sale And Do You Think The New Owners (If It Get's Sold) Will Make A Come Back?

P.s I Didn't Know Where Esle To Post This HAha

 

[Kaz]

Myspace has been on the fail for years, Facebook has become more user friendly and has stuff Myspace doesnt, Twitter has overtaken it due to more and more celebrities using it whereas most of them used to use Myspace for fans and stuff.

If Bebo win the bid, they will most likely re-direct to their domain at Bebo.com, either way if another big social network site buys it, most of them will re-direct to their existing site, as whats the point of 1 company owning 2 seperate sites.
But if an unknown company buys Myspace, what will they do with it? Spice it up and make a come back? or completly remove existing content and start from scratch?

 

[Online]

I think someone should buy it and turn it into like one of those 'pimp my ride' shows on MTV, but it'd be like Pimp my space (Myspace for short)

 

[lukey]

''
MySpace Merging With Facebook''.As of yesterday , MySpace and Facebook have merged into one entity. That's right, Facebook is now the biggest [social networking] boss that you've seen thus far! The only thing good coming out of MySpace these days stems from their music and movie section, which is why the site's CEO, Mike Jones, isn't even referring to MySpace as a social networking site anymore.

You must be registered for see links

got all the details:

On Thursday, MySpace unveiled what the company is calling a "Mashup with Facebook." The mashup basically is a connection across the two sites that will enable users to port their likes and interests from their Facebook profiles and have that information populate the content on their MySpace pages. The feature is billed as allowing MySpace users to create a personalized stream of entertainment content.

The new feature begins rolling out worldwide today.

You must be registered for see links

You must be registered for see links

|

You must be registered for see links

Today, during the press call, Mike Jones, CEO of MySpace, did not refer to the site as a social network. Instead, he called it "one of the largest entertainment experiences on the Web."

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, said Thursdady's announcement is symbolic of MySpace's leaving the social networking space.

"This is a recognition of an old defeat," Gottheil said. "MySpace stopped being the place to find and connect to friends a long time ago. This is reinforcing its value as what it is, a publishing site. Facebook is not, and will not be, a publishing site. So this partnership helps define and distinguish the two, and makes it easier for users to be active members of both sites, using each on for what it does well."

 

[Donkjam]

Buy it..turn it into a porn site...watch the traffic flood back