Myspace to Be Sold to Specific Media for $35 Million

[staunch]

That's a damn steal. There's still significantly more than $35 million worth of value left in MySpace.

With a new strategy and good execution someone could turn the site into something really big again. The press would eat it up too, because everyone loves a come-back story.

Instead some shitty ad company is probably going to turn it into a link farm.

[powertower]

First you would have to stop the users leaving. Then you'd have to get people to sign up.

What made myspace and other social sites is: "hey that's cool and new and trendy, lets join in". Once that traction is over, it's over for good as there is nothing new or trendy or cool about it anymore. It get's played out.

My personal opinion ... social sites are now worn out. Facebook will remain as-is with no new growth (after a while more), Google+/Circle will not have the effect that everyone is claiming it will, MySpace will be gutted for whatever the buyer can use (email lists, patents, talent, etc).

35 million is not a steal, it's probably the fare price at a fare valuation.

[ebiester]

Even a year ago, I'd agree with you. However, Soundcloud and others have really eaten into Myspace's indie music positioning. news corp could have merged Myspace with their other entertainment offerings. Every show of theirs would have a myspace page, and the visual editing operations become more corporate-friendly. Monetize by offering advanced analytics and moderation capabilities to make it another public presence for your entertainment property, from the independent band to The Simpsons.

Provide a host of consultants to get the most from your social media.

It could be done still, but News Corp would have provided a bigger appeal.

[dasil003]

It has value in it, but I don't know what strategy could turn it around. Social networking adoption is a lot about fashion, and with the opinion that MySpace is old, tired, ugly and boring having crossed the chasm years ago, it seems a very tough sell to turn that around.

[billpaetzke]

Just FYI, we are hiring ex-Myspace developers at Leads360. We've hired four ex-Myspacers in the past six months. Our technology stack is similar, so the learning curve is only slight. And we have lots of interesting and challenging projects to do. Located in El Segundo; full-time local only.

If you got laid off or are ready to jump ship, then email Bill at [email protected].

[jaaron]

Likewise, we're a new, funded Santa Monica based startup still looking for top web, mobile & backend engineers. Email [email protected] or find me at @jaaronfarr.

[Major_Grooves]

They might actually have made their money on the deal. Do we know how much revenues MySpace generated while News Corp owned them?

[WrkInProgress]

They had the 900 million dollar advertising deal with Google at one point.

[Macha]

> News Corp. bought Myspace for $580 in 2005,

Nice proof reading there.

On a more serious note, to lose $0.5bn in value pretty much shows how far Myspace has fallen.

[akavi]

Jesus, that's a markdown.

With the release of Google+, I have to wonder if we'll be seeing something similar with Facebook five years from now.

[danilocampos]

We'll definitely see Facebook decline but not because of any clumsy product Google offers. Facebook's decline will come from any of a number of new and as-yet-unimagined products that are focused on helping users make new social connections rather than rigidly codifying existing ones. A place for you to chat with your weed buddies, another for your gaming pals, another for your family. Something more analogous to how we socialize in reality. Google's trying this with circles but their social blindspot doesn't leave me confident they'll get anywhere. Everything they do feels contrived in this space.

Facebook has lots of a staying power, and a much better product leadership than MySpace. So that buys Facebook plenty of time. But in the end, they're too successful to risk doing anything interesting anymore.

[WrkInProgress]

It's possible but not probable.

Myspace at it's peak simply did not have even close to the reach and influence that facebook has currently.

[skarayan]

I find it interesting that the founders bid on it.

[jmjerlecki]

At $35 million I think you can make a number of arguments that this is a good purchase – user data, page traffic, ad network. I am unsure how to factor in brand value. Myspace has a huge brand awareness even if it is mostly negative.

[thewordpainter]

like you acknowledged, i'm not sure how much weight i'd put in brand awareness when many view myspace as a laughingstock these days. plus, all that traffic is ramping downward at a crazy high rate: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/myspace.com/

[horatiumocian]

I think that MySpace was valued at $12 billion at some point; where there where rumours that Yahoo! would merge with MySpace, and News Corp would receive 25% of Yahoo's shares (they were valued at around $50Bn).

Here is the article: http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/19/is-myspace-worth-12-billion...

[KeyBoardG]

Interesting to hear that NewsCorp made that money back with the Google deal. I had no idea how much that was worth.

[headhuntermdk]

Might as well as give it away for that price ( compared to how much Rupert Murdoch paid for it )

[kprobst]

Well, that's only a $545 million loss, considering Murdoch bought it for $580 million or so.

[cowkingdeluxe]

Wrong. Murdoch probably made a profit off the ads during that time. See above comments.