MySpace Sold To Specific Media For $35 Million

Frank Gruber June 29, 2011 Tweet

We have seen this coming for quite sometime. But now MySpace has been sold to Specific Media for $35 million in a sale that will be completed later today according to an early report and confirmed by a MySpace press release (shown below). MySpace was purchased by News Corp in 2005 for $580 million which at the time seemed like a ridiculous amount of money for a social network. Little did we know that it wouldn’t even be the valuation of FourSquare, Square, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or a number of other current social networking power players. So it’s amazing to see the decline in value of MySpace over the last six years.

A few employees have been tweeting about the sale and the expected workforce reduction (which could be up to 50% according to some sources) -tweets including CEO Mike Jones who recently tweeted in response to VP of Online Marketing Sean Percival’s departure saying:

“@Percival Eager to dive into the next thing with you SP!”

He also seperately tweeted:

“The LA Tech Community just got a massive infusion of talent”

LA Tech Just Got An Infusion of Talent From MySpace

Personally, I still feel MySpace has an opportunity to reinvent itself and when I visited the MySpace office last month as part of our West Coast Tour, we saw a number of things that we thought had potential. I think MySpace should focus on what it is good at – music and the social interactions around music. There are clear business models around music and up-and-coming artists can benefit from what’s left of MySpace’s audience, which I estimate is still around 30+ million unique visitors a month. So don’t abandon your MySpace login creds just yet.

The press release sent out today reads as follows confirming the sale:

SPECIFIC MEDIA ACQUIRES MYSPACE FROM NEWS CORPORATION

Los Angeles, Calif. — June 29, 2011 — Specific Media, a digital media company, today announced it has acquired Myspace from News Corporation. As part of the agreement, News Corporation will take a minority equity stake in Specific Media. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed.

“Myspace is a recognized leader that has pioneered the social media space. The company has transformed the ways in which audiences discover, consume and engage with content online,” said Tim Vanderhook, Specific Media CEO. “There are many synergies between our companies as we are both focused on enhancing digital media experiences by fueling connections with relevance and interest. We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation.”

Specific Media is an innovative global interactive media company that enables advertisers to connect with consumers in meaningful, impactful and relevant ways. Founded in 1999 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russell Vanderhook, Specific Media is currently headquartered in Irvine, CA and operates offices around the world.