Andre Yoskowitz
28 Jun 2011 12:37
News Corp. is just about ready to part with the death spiraling social network MySpace, at a price at least 70 percent smaller than their asking price.
The two companies looking to buy MySpace for $20-$30 million are Golden Gate Capital, a private equity firm, and Specific Media, an ad network.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. purchased the company for $580 million in 2005 and quickly saw it disintegrate. From 2010 to 2011 alone, MySpace traffic fell 48 percent to 35 million unique U.S. visitors. The company had an operating loss of $165 million last year.
Initial reports had News Corp. wanting to keep a 20 percent stake but it appears now that Murdoch wants the struggling social network off his books by the end of the year.
The company put itself up for sale earlier this year asking for $100 million.