News Corp. today sold Myspace to Specific Media for a reported $35 million today. $35 million is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but News Corp. bought Mysapce for $580 million in 2005. Mysapce has suffered a significant loss in both value and visitors under the News Corp. umbrella. Myspace, the once mighty giant of web 2.0 websites was eclipsed in the last several years by Facebook, who offered up a better site for interaction between people and tougher, though not impossible site for hackers and purveyors of porn to bother users. Today Facebook has close to 700 million users while Myspace has fallen to somewhere between 50-60 million users. LinkedIn, who recently went public has a market cap of $8.27 billion and 100 million users. Why the disparity of value? Myspace has only been profitable for one quarter since News Corp. purchased the site. Where Myspace was once the 500 pound gorilla and darling of the internet world, they either chose not to innovate or fought with management of News Corp. to be able to evolve and grow. This is a story that will repeat itself again and again. Facebook, today’s giant and must join site will find itself one day a shadow of its former self, eclipsed by another website…one that might exist today or maybe soon…who knows? Perhaps it will remain a viable player for years to come, perhaps it too will one day be a “remember when”….time will tell. The lesson to be learned here is that no business can rest on who or what is was yesterday. To steal a lyric from Janet Jackson….what have you done for me lately??
