Business

Silicon Tragedy: NewsCorp Sells MySpace for Just $35 Million

In 2005 MySpace.com was the world’s fastest-growing social network, with 20 million unique visitors (later climaxing at 70 million) each month in the United States. It was at that time when media goliath News Corporation was able to aquire the budding empire for a smooth $580 million, what most considered then to be a good deal. News has broke this afternoon that NewsCorp will sell the website to advertising targeting firm Specific Media for a mere $35 million, bringing perhaps a conclusion to the mesmerizing rise and fall of MySpace.com.

Silicon Tragedy: NewsCorp Sells MySpace for Just $35 Million

Before there was Mark, there was Tom. The side-turned smiling entrepreneur and first friend to anyone who ever used the site, who along with Chris DeWolfe launched MySpace is 2003. It was not till 2009 that Facebook finally over took MySpace, but the site had been poked, and in decline for years. New York Times:

“As users fled MySpace, so, too, did advertisers. The market research firm eMarketer estimates that the site will earn about $183 million in worldwide ad revenue this year, down from $605 million at its peak, when the site introduced many Web users and many advertisers to the concept of social networking.

‘It’s a shame that MySpace’s value has diminished so severely since the acquisition; MySpace’s pioneering of social networking (now referred to as social media) will always be revered as igniting a new medium,’ Richard Rosenblatt, the chairman of MySpace at the time of the sale to the News Corporation, said in an e-mail.”

MySpace only made a profit for NewsCorp once in six years, pushing management to frantically attempt to reboot itself several times as a social destination for music, politics, comedy, movies and other media. As each year went by, MySpace would bleed out more and more staff. Still NewsCorp came out with a $100 million asking price for the company and pushed that the site maintains 40 million active users worldwide. Buyers laughed in their face, pushing the price down to $35 million, which after bonus and stock comes close to equalling NewsCorp Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s yearly pay.

Where did the bubble burst? Some have argued that as variety in the social-media industry grew, users had to make choices of what sites were really worth their time and interest logging into everyday. Others say it may just be the inevitable end for any social-media rocket when dealing with the volatile mix of fast-moving technology, fickle user behavior, and swirling public perception that scrutinizes the industry.

When the end came, internal emotions reflect the feelings of many when they stopped using the site. Not sour or angry, just ready to move on. New York Times:

“Today should be a day,” Sean Percival, a vice president at MySpace, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning. Two hours later, he followed up, telling his online followers that Wednesday would be his last day at the company. Seemingly referring to the site’s rise and fall, he wrote, “It was a unique moment in time and an impossible problem to solve. Was proud to be a part of it.”

Comments (47)

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  • Gonzo
    Posted on July 2, 2011 at 2:47pm

    “the site will earn about $183 million in worldwide ad revenue this year”
    And you could buy it for 35 million? How much could it cost to run? Somebody should turn a profit with it.

    Report Post » Gonzo  
  • SicSemperTyrannis1
    Posted on July 2, 2011 at 11:32am

    Not a single one of you is willing to address the real down fall of MySpace which is clearly evident if one is willing to think and look a little deeper than the babbling chatter I am reading here.

    The demise of MySpace is the first case of “Digital White Flight”. MySpace began to change with all it’s evolving / devolving primitive tribal “bling” sparkles, rap and gangster crap. MySpace became the first “Digital Ghetto”. It’s as simple as that but of course no here would dare say this. Don’t want to hear it from me just Google “Digital White Flight + MySpace”.

    I suggest reading: “White Flight In Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook.” by Danah Boyd

    Also Google: White Flight from MySpace + Steve Sailer.

    Of course there will be those of you who will not believe their own ears and eyes but at least you’ve been exposed to the truth.

    Report Post » SicSemperTyrannis1  
  • yourbuddy
    Posted on July 2, 2011 at 8:21am

    since you didnt give any specific solutions to fix myspace, lets suggest some typical backwards backwoods redneck solutions: a duct tape factory and a handheld taper for all your “cuzzins”, incest friendly filters, oxycontin ads….

    Report Post »  
  • usavecomputers
    Posted on July 2, 2011 at 4:29am

    My space and Face book only gears the 80 percent impulse markets. Facebook is a fad and soon to be gone in a year or two as well. Hobbies come and go. Besides when is artificial space worth something?

    Report Post » usavecomputers  
  • usavecomputers
    Posted on July 2, 2011 at 4:27am

    Add your comments

    Report Post » usavecomputers  
  • JOE
    Posted on July 1, 2011 at 6:26pm

    All these places ppl put info on cant take it off will go down the drain some day

    AOL USE TO BE A KING ……………….IT DIED

    PEOPLE will want to keep there info to them self private and these sites put all out there with no control of it …….to the ppl that post them………

    Report Post » JOE  
  • MrUglyAmerican
    Posted on July 1, 2011 at 11:52am

    Once a good idea with grass roots beginnings becomes corporatized, and subsequently commercialized, the masses will naturally gravitate towards another medium for expression. My Space was a decentidea at first, due to the ability to personalize your page, but now it is inundated with corporate advertisement, media bias, popups, censorship and confusion – the same thing is happening to You Tube. While Facebook is much simpler to use and a good means of staying in touch with people, one still has to question the validity of placing your whole life online – especially now that Homeland Security routinely scrutinizes Facebook for seditious content.

    Report Post »  
  • tehOmni
    Posted on July 1, 2011 at 12:01am

    Frankly I was never crazy about myspace, it seemed so cluttered. Not that I am a fan of facebook either…

    Report Post » tehOmni  
  • advnet
    Posted on June 30, 2011 at 7:53pm

    Maybe we should give them a 100 billion dollar bail out.

    Report Post »  
  • endgamer
    Posted on June 30, 2011 at 11:49am

    MySpace wasn’t worth $35.00 let alone 35 million. Murdoch paid over 1/2 billion for My Space? MySpace is an irrelevant spam site where everyone spams each other and no one even monitors their own space or even cares. MySpace was once viable but Murdoch got burnt as he purchased it on it’s decline.

    Report Post » endgamer  
  • MrObvious
    Posted on June 30, 2011 at 9:05am

    @one years food ration like glenn says;
    “XP is the best”
    Actually Microsoft had a hand in a better OS at one time: OS2. It’s file system supported long file names (even back then) and didn’t need defraging, and it didn’t suffer from the memory leaks that nearly all the fully Microsoft OSes did, including XP (although they did manage to minimize it considerably by that point). IBM had a hand in making it stable. Microsoft had a hand in making the interface. The two corporations had a split; and, we got left with a choice between good OSes and popular ones that could run all the stuff we needed. OS2 lost.

    just fyi.

    Report Post »  
  • AWM
    Posted on June 30, 2011 at 9:02am

    MyFace, Spacebook, and Titter!
    All worthless but the Marxist machine.
    Soon your tax money will be supporting which ever is left, guaranteed.

    Report Post »  
  • sandmannc40
    Posted on June 30, 2011 at 7:38am

    First it was MySpace and now it’s about dead – but as of yesterday it was still there. Facebook could and will be on the chopping block. Some people hate MySpace and some people hate Facebook but if you look there are about 50 different social networks out there. Some have come and gone without any news coverage but the big boys out there make all the news. Time will tell cause greed has killed many companies.

    Report Post » sandmannc40  
  • Charybdis
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 11:59pm

    $35 Million!!?? Someone got ripped-off! They just threw their money down a rat-hole! LOL!

    Report Post »  
    • nomark
      Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:17am

      There is always someone who can dig the diamond out of the poo. Don’t be surprised to see myspace in some sort of comeback.It still has an Alexa TR in the top 100 of all sites. Higher than the NYTimes. Netlix or the Huffpo. Imagine what someone with real talent could do with that. ;-)

      Report Post »  
  • Matlor
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 11:40pm

    Be nice if they did away with all of the “me, me, I, I” self gratifying sites all together. It’s all destroying humanity.

    Report Post »  
  • kenfusion
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 11:12pm

    i use myspace for getting my artwork , and music worldwide viewership , and listening audience. you used to be able to customize your page by adding html code into certain areas of your profile ,but that stopped as the “NEW” myspace changed the way it was presenting . myspace is extremely slow to load a page because of their attempt to add twitter style updates into the command page gui.i used to enjoy visiting my friends political blogs and posting detailed comments including actual video , and pictures from other sources , this can no longer be done . facebook is simple but far from anywhere as useful for my purposes as the “old myspace ” was . i only use facebook to keep in touch with far flung family, and friends . i will not subject my family to strangers from around the globe on facebook that i would gladly have interfaced with on myspace.it is sad to say that a great and still unequalled networking media tool was ruined by shmaltz, and conformist one upsmanship .(keeping up with the joneses ;as it were). it is not that i am unwilling to adapt to a new format;only that the new format does not do what the old one does, nor does it seem to function at all for the most part.

    Report Post » kenfusion  
    • one years food ration like glenn says
      Posted on June 30, 2011 at 8:12am

      Yeah, just like window XP is the best OS microsoft ever made.. Windows vista or 7 is no where near what XP is, yet there they go, getting rid of XP and all new PC’s come with 7… Stupid..

      Report Post » one years food ration like glenn says  
  • FoxieNews
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 10:48pm

    I haven’t the heart to delete my MySpace page yet, cuz I have no way of saving all my videos I uploaded there years ago… anyone know how? I’ll delete it if I can manage to get those saved….. I had fun on MySpace back when it was popular, so I have nothing bad to say about them. It just got too “busy” on the site w/ all the animations and backgrounds & music on pages. May as well had been GeoCities all over again, and yes I had one of those “homepages” too back in the day, LOL Now I’m on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is the people you went to school with. Twitter is the people you wish you had gone to school with LOL I couldn’t possibly pick between FB & Twitter, they’re both awesome for their own reasons, and I hope they never fade away :) Best Wishes and Thanks to MySpace for bringing social media to us all, they started it and should get props for that :)

    Report Post » FoxieNews  
    • redneck hickabilly
      Posted on June 30, 2011 at 1:58am

      yes just download firefox and then download a addon called scrapbook it will save everything on the page for you-

      its quite simple really

      just get firefox and then scrapbook its one of the best things created for saving whole-webpages even whole websites

      Report Post »  
    • AnonymousMrPresident
      Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:24pm

      Here is how to get your videos, first you will need to have Firefox as a browser, then use the AddOn “Down load manager, . Once you have Down load Manager, you then can store the videos on your myspace page by , playing the vide you want and use the download icon in Firefox.Save the vides where you want. Sounds like a lot but it is really simple when you have the tools. Good luck!

      Report Post »  
    • AnonymousMrPresident
      Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:28pm

      use firefox, it has a add on called Download Manager, then play the video in your myspace page and capture it with download manager

      Report Post »  
  • Charles
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 10:22pm

    My (lame) space took money from spam and malware distributors to allow them to use my (lame) space to load their malware onto peoples computers when visiting their site. If you contacted them to complain they would tell you your computer had a problem. They took people for fools. Money grubbing criminals ran my (lame) space into the ground. Good riddance. I deleted my account two years ago.

    Report Post »  
  • thinkinghuman
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 8:51pm

    MySpace had an ICK feel to it. Hideous interface. No rules. Porn if you like. It was just a cesspool patterned after the morals of MTV. Facebook does a much better job of keeping that at bay.

    Report Post » thinkinghuman  
  • unclepound
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 8:30pm

    Tom scared people away!!! Just kidding…Blame it on Facebook. My friend may be right that FB is the devil!!! LOL….I think I did exorcise myself by cleaning out my account and deactivating it. Hopefully I never reactivate my FB account.

    Report Post »  
  • I.Gaspar
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 7:57pm

    I see a lot of people criticizing the writer/editors at the Blaze.
    I try to weigh the value of the stories against things like spelling and grammar.
    But PLEASE, Blaze…hire some people who can both read and write.
    In this story, “News has broke”.
    Either the editors don’t know the difference, or they don’t seem to care…but it cheapens the message.
    Hire a real editor.

    Report Post »  
  • Pyx
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 7:10pm

    Over one half one billion dollars loss. WOW.

    Report Post » Pyx  
    • thinkinghuman
      Posted on June 29, 2011 at 8:50pm

      Not so big when you consider that this country wastes a trillion on a war for oil and WMD that don’t exist. Iraq was a fiasco and wrong headed war.

      Report Post » thinkinghuman  
    • Big Daddy
      Posted on July 4, 2011 at 8:13am

      Sort of like Libya and Afghanistan and Somalia. But you just forgot those, huh.

      Report Post » Big Daddy  
    • ohiowordguy
      Posted on June 30, 2011 at 12:13am

      @thinkinghuman:

      Really? You go from a biz story on MySpace to a tired, left-wing anti-war rant?

      Wow. Just wow. Time to check that tinfoil hat and up your meds.

      Report Post »  
    • chazman
      Posted on June 30, 2011 at 4:55am

      @OBSERVER

      The truth hurts Liberals to the core. What exactly is it they believe in but lies?

      Report Post »  
  • KickinBack
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 6:51pm

    And AOL will sell HuffPo for a buck and quarter. Soon.

    Report Post » KickinBack  
    • ObserverMI
      Posted on June 29, 2011 at 7:50pm

      “And AOL will sell HuffPo for a buck and quarter. Soon.”

      I hope so, I cannot stand HuffPo. I created a name to respond to stories… was on there for 3 weeks and couldn’t take it anymore. The stories they post… mostly slanted and unfair. Try to interact with others, most are Libs that simply degrade, never answer questions directly, put you down and spew nonsense. Really tried having civil discussions, would include facts, links to support and they’d simply sidestep it after all the effort you put in and minimize, trash it and move on.
      A crap place.

      Report Post »  
  • redneck hickabilly
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 6:37pm

    i could of fixed it for news corp in under six months

    people who dont know online trends should never be allowed to meddle with things how they are–
    just slow tweaks overtime-

    just like yahoo-i could make it number one again with in months-

    sad to see tech ceo’s who know nothing about what people want online-

    Report Post »  
  • wildchild
    Posted on June 29, 2011 at 6:33pm

    Myspace died for many reasons… mostly had to do with other people coming up with better ideas… funny how capitalism works

    Report Post »  
    • redneck hickabilly
      Posted on June 29, 2011 at 6:39pm

      myspace was ruined because it ended up not userfriendly
      to many ads at the wrong times-
      the more sophisticated a site becomes the more people leave

      Report Post »  
    • Gold Coin & Economic News
      Posted on June 29, 2011 at 6:59pm

      MySpace was always a joke. it appealed to mainly under 13s and it never paid off for advertisers because 13-year-olds and under don’t buy, they can’t get out a credit card and make a purchase.

      Besides that, MySpace was hideous with all it’s flashing, glittering, glowing crap graphics and its grotesque design. When Facebook came along with a clean look and a more responsive demographic for advertisers, people started leaving MySpace in droves.

      Report Post » Gold Coin & Economic News  
    • wifezilla
      Posted on July 4, 2011 at 12:25pm

      Exactly! Logging on to myspace was like walking in to a teenager’s bedroom. It was cluttered, loud and the only thing lacking was the smell of dirty gym socks.

      Report Post » wifezilla  
    • survivorseed
      Posted on June 29, 2011 at 8:44pm

      surprised they managed to get $1 let alone $35 million. It came and went before I even knew what it was

      Report Post »  
    • BoiseBaked
      Posted on June 30, 2011 at 12:02am

      The thrill is gone. You’re next Facebook. Good riddens.

      Report Post »  
    • one years food ration like glenn says
      Posted on June 30, 2011 at 7:50am

      LMFAO ,It’s no wonder.. NOW I know why they were frantically sending me e-mails to come and look at all the new things on myspace.. Never did though, actually I closed the account.. hahahahaha !!!! I don’t even use facebook anymore, it’s not private enough, they can dig into your life over there.. Closed that account too.

      Report Post » one years food ration like glenn says  
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