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Digital
News Corp will try to offload MySpace this month
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 1 June 2011
News Corp is hoping to finally offload MySpace this month, according to AllThingsD, though whether anyone will make an offer over the $100 million mark, which is what the Rupert Murdoch controlled media conglom reportedly wants for the one time social networking giant, remains to be seen.
News Corp confirmed its intent to sell its flagging MySpace business in January, and has been in talks with various interested parties ever since. As previously reported, it’s thought that News Corp’s bankers Allen & Co at one point proposed to the Universal and Sony owned Vevo that they might be interested in making a bid to access MySpace’s sizable database of music fans, indicating the Murdoch company might be willing to accept an offer in part based on equity in the video site, though it doesn’t seem there was much excitement for such a deal at Vevo HQ.
According to AllThingsD, it seems that there are currently two realistic options on the table for News Corp’s digital chiefs, either sell to Criterion Capital Partners, the equity group that bought Bebo from AOL, or accept an offer by current CEO Michael Jones of a management buy out, though its not yet fully clear in Jones as the investment in place to fund such a deal. It is possible at least one other private equity fund has expressed an interest also, though whether any of these potential bidders would make an offer in excess of a hundred million we don’t know.
Apparently News Corp has been sharing stats about MySpace’s recent performance with the bidders still in the room, noting that recent innovations like a MySpace-powered Facebook artists profile app have led to increased “user engagement”, something they presumably hope might up the offer price. That said, News Corp would also like the whole MySpace issue to be resolved within this financial quarter, so are now pushing quite hard for final offers. With time of the essence they may end up having to except somewhat less than they had hoped for the web phenomenon they bought for $580 million in 2005.
