News Corp Ready to Sell Myspace

News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA), one of the largest news and media companies, purchased Myspace for approximately $580 million in 2005. At the time of purchase, Myspace was one of the largest social media network sites with a bright future ahead. They had millions of users and thousands of advertisers who helped the company grow at a rapid pace. In 2005, this was one of the largest internet transactions and the beginning of what seemed to be a successful investment for News Corp. However, soon other social media companies came into play. Along with competitors, Facebook too started to provide similar services. Even though both companies initially offered the same types of services, Facebook was able to take into account their users needs and they constantly improved their site. Slowly they started to attract more investors and users eventually left Myspace and begun to join Facebook. Over the last few years, Myspace has lost millions of users and a large number of their advertisers. Due to the loss, the company announced that they would be changing what they have to offer, and instead of being a full service social network site, the company decided that they would concentrate on media and entertainment. Despite their efforts to change and improve their services, it seems that it was too late for the company, as their change has not been as successful. News Corp too reported that they were losing money from the social network site and unless things changed, they would be looking to sell.

Now there is new confirmation that News Corp is looking to unload Myspace as soon as possible. However they are not shopping around for buyers as it has been reported that News Corp will likely sell Myspace to Vevo. Vevo is partly owned by Sony Music and it seems that they would be the best candidate to take over Myspace. However unlike other sales, it seems that Myspace will be exchanged for other services. News Corp currently has several other offers for Myspace however they are likely to complete the transaction with Vevo. More news regarding the transaction has not been released and as talks are still in progress, it will take some time, before any decision is made. Analysts feel that even though this venture has been a financial burden for News Corp, it will benefit Vevo. The current value of Myspace has not been made clear, but News Corp will certainly not receive the amount they spent on the purchase.