News Corp finally sells MySpace
By Johan Keyter 30 June 2011 | Categories: newsRewind to 2007 and the social networking scene on the internet was vastly different, with two behemoths, Facebook and MySpace, fighting it out for control of the market.
As we know today, Facebook won that war, and over the years MySpace has gradually shrunk. The site tried to cling on by becoming a platform for artists, but even this was crushed beneath Facebook's overarching popularity.
Now owners News Corp. have finally shed the flailing website, selling it to Specific Media LLC. The Wall Street Journal claims that “people familiar with the matter” informed them that the company will pay $35 million for the site.
While still a hefty chunk of cash, this sum pales in comparison to the $580 million which News Corp. originally paid for MySpace back in 2005.
Over the past few months MySpace has tried to get itself back into the social-networking race, with major site redesigns, and even a Facebook syncing service rolling out. Alas, neither was enough to rekindle interest in the site, and as months of lay-offs have indicated, the News Corp. party is now over.
It is as yet unclear what Specific Media plans to do with the site. The company specialises in advertising services, selling ads to other websites and large brand advertisers. Interestingly, singer Justin Timberlake has invested an undisclosed sum in the company, with whispers of an attempted rebuild of the site in the air.
Is this finally the last hoorah for MySpace? And what will happen to all those user accounts and stored content? Time will tell, but for right now it seems Facebook has emerged as the sole social-networking superpower.
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