News Corp. Would Consider Selling MySpace

by Hugh Collins Nov 30th 2010 7:30AM
Updated Nov 30th 2010 7:44AM

Media giant News Corp. (NWS) would consider selling MySpace or entering into a partnership after reworking the social network into an entertainment website, Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey told Reuters.

"There are opportunities here to do 20 things (with MySpace) but that doesn't mean you're going to do any of the 20. If there's something there that makes sense you ought to think about it," said Carey.

News Corp. overhauled MySpace in the face of intense competition from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. MySpace received 60 million visitors in October, compared with 151 million for Facebook.

The site now focuses on entertainment such as music and videos.

Any sale or merger would have been difficult before the revamp, Carey said.

"I think those options would have been pretty limited and I think probably would have undervalued it against what we think it can be," Carey said.

Carey said he expects the site to turn a profit within quarters rather than years.

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Madeleine

As a myspace user for almost 5 years and a happy one, I came in and found my space profile page turned upside down. I had to upgrade and now have to use HTML whcich I can't seem to do, I never could, so all of my pictures and videos are gone. This newscorp has been upgrading us for awhile, none of it good, I am not an artist but all of my myspace friends are, they have different layouts than standard users and I am out in the cold and its my site they are using. I dont' really want to leave because I like the friends I haveon my site, soem of them have been there from the beginning, almost 5 years now, a lot fo actors and bands, new and some famous. I do think the new owners could have given more thought to the millions of non entertainment users, there happen to be just as many of them as entertainers let them advertise but leave standard profile pages alone. I dont' enjoy using it anymore and I have an empty profile page, you have to be a computer programmer ot use it, the new rules are almost communistic, my personal pictures plastered on my profile page without my permission. From what I understand Rupert Murdoch has brought it, it shows. They are trying to be helpful but its just geared to a different crowd now , these entertainers depend on people like me ot have them on their websites and to let them advertise to an array of users, and let people know where they are playing etc. I am very user friendly to that, I sometimes tweet their new music out there and put it on my facebook, my son has a band and thats why I came there in the first place. If you can't download music that you like and pictures that mean something to you then there is no sense being there, everytime you turn around they are changing things with no thought to the user, the regular user,I hope they do sell it and the new owners put it back the way it was, it was the best place on the internet, now its just a giant billboard and if you are not in show biz you won't enjoy it at all, I see them losing most of their regular users and a lot of the music people have started using facebook, at least they leave you alone there and you can interact with your fans if you are an entertainer. Stndard users should have been left alone, without them the entertainers have ono one ot "pimp their gigs" and post their posters and banners, my profile page will remain empty until someone else buys it, if it is not changed then I will leave. It sucks.

November 30 2010 at 6:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply