Comments on: Why Murdoch Really Bought MySpace?

By: BoyOfTheEnders

BoyOfTheEnders — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:19:16 +0000

We all remember what happened when the government (Murdoch) got their hands into Myspace. http://t.co/jLsS9TKk #bs #facebook #corrupt #lies

By: Maurice Byrne

Maurice Byrne — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:38:35 +0000

Staggering level of fawning for a media mogul who epitomizes everything that is wrong in freedom of news management. However, it just goes to show how wrong we can be. Myspace who?

By: The Perils of the Prediction Game: Tech News «

The Perils of the Prediction Game: Tech News « — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:31:29 +0000

[...] sometimes analysis and its value changes depending on when you look. For example, in 2005, we said Myspace was a good acquisition by News Corp. It was a way to go-up against MTV. At $580 million, it was a bargain. A $900 million-plus [...]

By: MySpace Said To Be On Life Support | The Executive Whisper

MySpace Said To Be On Life Support | The Executive Whisper — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 02:11:35 +0000

[...] only was it another brilliant move by the media mogul, but the price he paid was a bargain,” wrote, um, notable smart guy Om Malik in August, 2005. (See, nobody really knows what the hell is going to happen [...]

By: confuzion

confuzion — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 05:46:36 +0000

but why did he purposely ruin myspace is the question, they made every bit of navigation very hard to deal with, took out every short cute even the lite view tab at the top now u have to backtrack to click it, alot of links are gone. then made the privacy horrible by exposing every single move anyone does to the entire friendlist. then copied facebook even though myspace users who liked myspace for itself hate facebook.

By: medlaw

medlaw — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:47:11 +0000

“No matter what you may think of Rupert Murdoch, he never overpays”
Yes, Rupert looked brilliant in 2005 … until he moved out of his core business (newspapers and television) onto the web. This article does a good job of explaining why myspace makes little sense from a business standpoint as an adjunct to a media company.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/murdoch.html

I see myspace recently laid off 400 employees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/technology/companies/17myspace.html?_r=1

Rupert’s recent comments about delisting from google have exposed him as utterly uninformed about the web and how it interacts with news / media companies.

By: After Being Out Foxed On The Web, MySpace May Do An About Face(book) |

After Being Out Foxed On The Web, MySpace May Do An About Face(book) | — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:33:32 +0000

[...] owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. No one can seriously believe that when Murdoch paid $600 million dollars for MySpace four years ago he expected MySpace to so quickly fall out off the [...]

By: Imitation and Obsolescence – Facebook Guns for Twitter | Convince & Convert Feed | Online Marketing Connect

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:03:35 +0000

[...] a reported $500 million. Not bad to be sure, but far less than YouTube’s $1.65 billion, or MySpace’s $580 million (in 2005 dollars). Regardless of the soundness of their perceived self-worth, Twitter rejected [...]

By: Snarkasm « Cinie’s World

Snarkasm « Cinie’s World — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:20:30 +0000

[...] the CEOs of two big corporations that own shit like money losing MySpace, Fox News, NBC, and the Pretendident make a pact, reported in the news, to get their on-air [...]

By: The Best

The Best — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:17:10 +0000

Well, hindsight is 20/20 and this was written long ago. But I think we see now, given that facebook has taken over myspace, that the myspace purchase may not have been one of Rupert’s best plays. No?

By: With MySpace Changes, a Social Networking Era Ends

With MySpace Changes, a Social Networking Era Ends — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:29:06 +0000

[...] cohort President Tom Anderson. DeWolfe ran the company from 2003, helped sell it to News Corp., for $580 million in 2005 and later help negotiate $900 million advertising deal with Google. Since then, MySpace has lost [...]

By: CinthiaRAm..

CinthiaRAm.. — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:58:26 +0000

Rubert Bought Myspace for 580 million dollars

By: Uploading! « Seb Giambrone’s Blog

Uploading! « Seb Giambrone’s Blog — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:05:43 +0000

[...] http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ [...]

By: Digging Those MySpace Add Ons - Buzzsonic.com

Digging Those MySpace Add Ons - Buzzsonic.com — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:08:21 +0000

[...] MySpace Backlash (Wired.com) Feb. 27 2006 Users Crowd Into MySpace (BusinessWeek.com) Nov. 15 2005 Why Murdoch Really Bought MySpace? (GigaOm.com) Aug.6 2005 Bookmark This [...]

By: Murdoch and MySpace.. « Mel Scammell

Murdoch and MySpace.. « Mel Scammell — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:27:14 +0000

[...] this nice little piece by Robert Young on gigaom.com (‘Why Murdoch Really Bought MySpace?’), it seems he wants to get into the music game by creating an MTV3, if you will: In [...]

By: CAT

CAT — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:54:52 +0000

This analysis from 2005 sure makes sense in the past context.
Right now in 2008 Murdoch was said to be offering MySpace to Yahoo or at least stronger collaboration similar to those with Google.

Being entirely based on Microsoft .NET (for those who didn’t know it;-) the partnership of what’s one of the biggest MS .NET sites in the world with archrival Google makes it a curious form of Mash Up Hybrid,

Certainly if Murdoch offered MySpace to Microsoft it sounded far more logical.
At least it’s technology they understand ;-)

However, Google’s clever stakes in all these companies (Yahoo, MySpace, AOL) makes it almost impossible for each of them to become 100% perfect targets for Ballmer & Co.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen may have beaten many competitors like AOL/Netscape, Novell or Apple in the past, but many of their former players are now tending to outsmart his successor Steve Ballmer on more than just one front.
Murdoch only plays a minor role, but at least he’s a kind of Joker for both sides.