News Corp readying £60m MySpace sale

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is set to make a huge loss on social networking site MySpace after reports suggested that the company is planning to sell the business for around $100m (£60m).

The Wall Street Journal, also owned by News Corp, listed a number of venture capital firms as potential buyers, including Thomas H Lee Partners, Redscout Ventures and Criterion Capital Partners LLC.

Criterion Capital Partners, owner of competing social network site Bebo, is another possibility, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

News Corp bought MySpace in 2005 for $580m, before Facebook became the dominant force in the social networking market.

As quickly as Facebook rose to fame, even overtaking Google as the most visited US site, MySpace rapidly declined in popularity. In 2009, MySpace site traffic showed that users were abandoning the site for Facebook.

News Corp announced in February that it would try to sell the site, while at the same time relaunching it as a social entertainment hub in one last effort to turn it around.

MySpace laid off roughly 47 per cent of its workforce in Jaunuary in a clear sign that News Corp was pulling out of the race.

However, while MySpace has lost out to Facebook, there is clearly no lack of social networks trying to compete in the market.

Wednesday saw the launch of a new site called Wordspreadz, which aims to facilitate in-depth discussion on globally relevant topics.

“Until now, social network content has largely focused on brief exchanges of opinions or simple conversations between family and friends,” said Simon King, co-founder and chief executive of Wordspreadz.

“Although existing social networks certainly provide a highly valid venue for this type of communication, we built Wordspreadz to serve as a forum for people wishing to heighten their level of involvement in discussions about global news and compelling topics of the day."

Also hoping to pop Facebook's bubble is Diaspora, a site which its owners claim will be "intrinsically more private" than the market leader.