By Manikandan Raman: Subscribe to Manikandan's RSS feed
June 30, 2011 7:06 AM EDT
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS) sold Myspace to ad network Specific Media for $35 million, a far cry from its 2007 valuation of $12 billion, and the $100 million News Corp was expecting from the sale.
The $35 million represents a 94 percent discount to the $580 million News Corp. paid to buy the social networking Web site in 2005.
Myspace allows people to create personal profiles and suggests music and other media and is available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices and offline events.
Additional terms of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed, Specific Media said in a statement. News Corp. would take a minority equity stake in Specific Media.
"There are many synergies between our companies as we are both focused on enhancing digital media experiences by fueling connections with relevance and interest. We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation," said Specific Media CEO Tim Vanderhook.
Follow us
California-based Specific Media was founded in 1999 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russell Vanderhook.
Specific Media said it partnered with Emmy and Grammy-winning artist Justin Timberlake, who reportedly made an undisclosed investment in the company. Specific Media and Timberlake are expected to unveil their plans for Myspace in an exclusive press conference later this summer.
Rise and Fall
It was only four years before Myspace was valued at around $12 billion and had 300 million registered users.
Immediately after the acquisition, MySpace struck a $900-million ad deal with none other than search giant Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) that fetched more than double it spent on the acquisition.
Myspace, which was launched in January 2004, became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006, a position that it held throughout 2007 until 2008, when Facebook entered the social networking space. By April 2008, according to comScore, Myspace was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, based on monthly unique visitors.
Since then, MySpace traffic has declined steadily and the drastic fall had even surprised some News Corp. executives.
Myspace had 34.9 million unique U.S. users in May 2011, according to comScore, while Facebook had 157.2 million unique visitors.
According to the latest statistics, Facebook has more than 500 million active users and over 250 million are currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook, which is valued at around $100 billion.
iOS 5.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak: Absinthe 2.0 Now Covers iPad 3,3; Release Expected Friday In HITB Conference
Leap Motion Brings 3-D Motion Control Technology To Laptops And Desktops [VIDEO]
iPhone 5: New Display to be 4.1in, Leaked Screen Bezel RevealsWe value your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.
