Myspace sold again

Hal Emmerich

Guardian.co.uk

Myspace sold for $35m in spectacular fall from $12bn heyday

Five years ago News Corp bought it for $580m – then it was crushed by Facebook, leaving it at a fraction of its peak value

• 
  Myspace was in the vanguard of social networking but News Corp bought it just as Facebook was asserting its dominance.
  
  
  
  Myspace, once the world's hottest internet firm, has been sold to an online ad company for around $35m, a fraction of the $100m its parent company was seeking for the ailing social network and billions less than its value five years ago.
  
  
  Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought Myspace in 2005 for $580m. In 2006 Google signed a $900m deal to sell ads on Myspace; by 2007 it had 300m registered users and was being valued at $12bn. But the social network was subsequently crushed by Facebook, which launched a year after Myspace.
  
  
  News Corp put Myspace up for sale this year, engaging investment bank Allen & Co to find a buyer. News had been looking for $100m but settled for $35m offer from advertising targeting firm Specific Media. The sale is believed to be mainly in stock and News Corp will retain a small holding.
  
  
  Myspace is expected to shed more than half of its 500 remaining members of staff as part of the deal. The layoffs follow a 30% staff reduction in April 2010 and a further cut of 47% in January 2011. Two years ago Myspace employed more than 1,400 people.
  Facebook passed Myspace in terms of numbers of users two years ago. As people dropped Myspace, so did advertisers.
  
  
  
  Market research firm eMarketer estimates that the site will earn about $183m in worldwide ad revenues this year, down from $605m at its peak.
  
  
  The sale comes as a new generation of internet firms are attracting sky-high valuations. Zynga, the online games developer behind hits including CityVille and FarmVille, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) that could value it at $20bn. LinkedIn, the business-focused social network, has already gone public and is valued at $8.6bn. Next year Facebook is expected to go public – analysts have estimated it could be worth $80bn or more.

Sold again, to Specific Media along with Justin Timberlake who put in an undisclosed amount of his own money saying

"There's a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. Myspace has the potential to be that place.

Could this be a come back?

Ad revenue of $183 surprised me, Facebook struggled to make $2 billion in 2010 and has valuations of $80 to $100 billion .

Anyone lucky enough to have private Facebook shares come IPO day will be very happy methinks.

Wazdakka

Pfffft.. Myspace..

Geocities is where it's at man..

I'm hip...
:cool:

Sanjuro

Justin Timberlake. Successful singer, idiot businessman.

Duggy747

The creators of Myspace must have that tiny bit of regret of the massive oppertunity they missed before Facebook came along.

They have their money but, still, who wouldn't want to have the power of Facebook in the market?

amacachi

Sanjuro wrote: »

Justin Timberlake. Successful singer, idiot businessman.

Depends on the deal. If he was smart he would negotiate a high stake for a low price and if he gets enough of his mates to promote it etc. he could well make a nice return.

Saila

Duggy747 wrote: »

The creators of Myspace must have that tiny bit of regret of the massive oppertunity they missed before Facebook came along.

They have their money but, still, who wouldn't want to have the power of Facebook in the market?

yeah I bet they regret selling for 2 billion $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$:rolleyes:

Superbus

Timberlake was in the Social Network... there's a joke there somewhere.

Duggy747

Saila wrote: »

yeah I bet they regret selling for 2 billion $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$:rolleyes:

Ah rolleyes, well done.

Myspace wasn't sold for $2 billion, it had been valued at $12bn before Facebook came along but was dropped thanks to it's failure to compete with it.

Read the article before slapping on that smug smiley.

flyswatter

Myspace was never really a good website. The strongest part of it was the music side but sites like Soundcloud make that redundant now as they are much easier to use and just far better designed in general.

Vinta81

Would Justin ever make a new bloody album

The Scientician

flyswatter wrote: »

Myspace was never really a good website. The strongest part of it was the music side but sites like Soundcloud make that redundant now as they are much easier to use and just far better designed in general.

Soundcloud doesn't replace the functionality of heyday myspace. Had they kept it as a music purveyors/fans site it would probably still be thriving. There's still no simple, one-stop alternative. Bands want a site that's easy to use, you can fire up pictures, videos and music downloads and fans can interact. For a while myspace was that, then they screwed the pooch as they say.

ball

Superbus wrote: »

Timberlake was in the Social Network... there's a joke there somewhere.

That's the first thing I thought of.

Knex*

Unless they are able to join with something like twitter or are legally able to incorporate some of its features and concepts I cannot see the reason for it tbh.

flyswatter

The Scientician wrote: »

Soundcloud doesn't replace the functionality of heyday myspace. Had they kept it as a music purveyors/fans site it would probably still be thriving. There's still no simple, one-stop alternative. Bands want a site that's easy to use, you can fire up pictures, videos and music downloads and fans can interact. For a while myspace was that, then they screwed the pooch as they say.

In recent times they improved the general look of Myspace but it was always a clunky site and hard to navigate.

Thing I like about Soundcloud is the simplicity and ability to upload for example maximum quality (WAV for example) music files without them being capped at 128kbps like they were on Myspace.

JimiWonderDoor 92

Superbus wrote: »

Timberlake was in the Social Network... there's a joke there somewhere.

Evidently Justin Timberlake as a Businessman.

The Scientician

flyswatter wrote: »

In recent times they improved the general look of Myspace but it was always a clunky site and hard to navigate.

Thing I like about Soundcloud is the simplicity and ability to upload for example maximum quality (WAV for example) music files without them being capped at 128kbps like they were on Myspace.

That's great and all but mainly appeals to other audio artists, or hardscore fans. Casual fans, that myspace was great for, probably don't care too much once MP3s are at say 196kpbs. It would be great if someone combined the quality hosting of SC with a simple, fast social networking function.

msg11

It's the Internet it's a fast paced environment. You can be top of the pile one moment with all the money in the world, if you don't give the users what they want or if they see something better. They will move.

Facebook is the same, it will fall. That is of course if they don't keep up with the markets that are trending and keep the users happy at the same time.

Facebook is very heavily mobile and it works well on the mobile platform which is the up and coming market. If MySpace wanted to enter back into the social network race then threw mobile would be the way.

A simple on the move social product but at the same time you can use your home computer for more of the heavy stuff, files etc...

Another market I think is on the up is the touch screen devices, which Boards covers.

Then again they could taylor the site to suit one type of user or users. Over 50's, Under 18's etc... All I will say to these people, users of facebook are that users of facebook, we don't need another facebook. Again this is the internet many things work some don't it's hard to say what the next big site will be, cause it could be any small scale site. Who knows, but I do know one things, throwing money at a site won't work or loading the hell out of it ads wont work either.

Sites come and go, These guys are just buying some fancy name they remember. They could have bought Bebo, they should be left to die off and spend there money on something they developed themselves not just bought overnight. There is no passion in that !

nitromaster

Even Bebo was sold for 20 times myspace's cost a few years back....the myspace owners definately didn't leave at the right time! :pac:

Seachmall

The only thing valuable about MySpace is the name, and even that is a reminder of a giant failure.

If he wanted to rejuvenate MySpace as a place for artists to keep in contact with fans than he should have launched a completely separate idea that doesn't have the undertones that MySpace has (corny, tween infested, outdated, ultimate failure) for a fraction of the price.

I don't see this going anywhere, if he does get a return then fair play but I think this is one of the worst purchases he could have made.

flyswatter

msg11 wrote: »

It's the Internet it's a fast paced environment. You can be top of the pile one moment with all the money in the world, if you don't give the users what they want or if they see something better. They will move.

Facebook is the same, it will fall. That is of course if they don't keep up with the markets that are trending and keep the users happy at the same time.

Facebook is very heavily mobile and it works well on the mobile platform which is the up and coming market. If MySpace wanted to enter back into the social network race then threw mobile would be the way.

A simple on the move social product but at the same time you can use your home computer for more of the heavy stuff, files etc...

Another market I think is on the up is the touch screen devices, which Boards covers.

Then again they could taylor the site to suit one type of user or users. Over 50's, Under 18's etc... All I will say to these people, users of facebook are that users of facebook, we don't need another facebook. Again this is the internet many things work some don't it's hard to say what the next big site will be, cause it could be any small scale site. Who knows, but I do know one things, throwing money at a site won't work or loading the hell out of it ads wont work either.

Sites come and go, These guys are just buying some fancy name they remember. They could have bought Bebo, they should be left to die off and spend there money on something they developed themselves not just bought overnight. There is no passion in that !

Myspace has had a mobile application for a few years though so that didn't even help in that regard.

OutlawPete

Superbus wrote: »

Timberlake was in the Social Network... there's a joke there somewhere.

If he thinks MySpace has the potential to do what he says it can, then he's a sapster.

_feedback_

This thread reminds me, I must close down my myspace account.

Capt'n Midnight

elviscostello wrote: »

This thread reminds me, I must close down my myspace account.

sell it on ebay instead