Fading social network MySpace has finally been sold by News Corporation, for a massive loss on what they originally paid for it.
News Corp purchased the network in 2005 for around $580million (£361million), when it was the market leader, with statistics from the time showing MySpace had 21.9million unique US visitors, compared to Facebooks 8.3million.
Since then however MySpace has been in decline, whilst Facebook and Twitter have had undergone exponential growth, in May this year MySpace brought in 34.9million unique visitors, in comparison to Facebook’s 157.2million, and their near 700million users.
The deal for the sale shows a huge loss for News Corp, following news that the sector they account MySpace under had suffered an operating loss of $156million, they have recouped only $35million – £21million. (according to unconfirmed reports).
The deal see’s small Californian advertising agency Specific Media take majority control, whilst Pop Star Justin Timberlake also has a small stake.
Whether new owners and perspective can help MySpace take on Facebook, Twitter, and even Google+ when its released remains to be seen, but they have a huge task ahead of them to salvage the sinking ship.
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