File this one under "What ever happened to..."

[randomness]

From http://allthingsd.com/20110629/exclusive-myspace-to-be-sold-to-specific-media-at-35-million/?refcat=social:

Myspace has been sold to to Specific Media, an advertising network, for $35 million.

The price is well below the $100 million that News Corp. had been hoping for and a chasm away from Myspace’s one-time billion valuation.

The deal includes a halfing of Myspace’s staff of 400, as well as other cost cuts. It’s likely Jones and other top staff will remain only for an interim period.

News Corp. bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005, and made that back via a lucrative advertising deal with Google when the social networking site was flying high.

But that was another time–the media giant has been trying to sell the site before the end of its fiscal year, which falls on Thursday, in order to get it off the books.

FT Alphaville adds:

Myspace’s value dropped roughly $174 a minute under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch.

Vanity Fair has A List of Things Worth More than MySpace.

Comments

[bodger]

Rupert Murdoch nearly killed DirecTV with his home-designed DVR that pretty much ignored any user interface pleasantry. He seems to have a knack for ruining stuff. Sadly, that's a lucrative career path.