MySpace Sold!

Was about to sleep when I came across a news feed that I think was long overdue. As of writing this, social networking site MySpace has been sold to the tune of $35 million to advertising network Specific Media.

MySpace CEO Mike Jones says that he is leaving the company, so will most of his staff. Though an email, Mike said;

“In conjunction with the deal, we are conducting a series of restructuring initiatives, including a significant reduction in our workforce. I will assist Specific with the transition over the next two months before departing my role as MySpace CEO.”

MySpace parent company News Corp. said last February that is was ready to sell MySpace and was hoping to get at least $100 million from the said sale. News Corp. bought the site in 2005 for $580 million and was hoping to revive the social media site back to its former glory. But with Facebook dominating the social network sandbox, MySpace traffic has dropped substantially which led to News Corp. to let go of it.

Reports say that News Corp. will still have a 10% stake in Myspace which will now primarily focus on music.

Furthermore, Justin Timberlake will have an ownership stake on MySpace. Timberlake was quoted 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,” Art is inspired by people and vice versa, so there’s a natural social component to entertainment.”

My take on this news is this:

MySpace no longer has the ability to catch up with other social media sites. And with the world waiting for the public release of Google+, it just make things a little bit harder for what used to be one of the biggest social media site. And with Timberlake on board handling a music oriented social media site, no thanks.

I’ll just stick with Last.fm.



About the author:

Johann is a content writer and the social media analyst for Filipino Article Writer and Alova Media. He also makes chill out podcasts on his blog Aftersyx and throws himself down a hill during weekends on his longboard.

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