Specific Media buys Myspace for $35 million, cutting staff by 50%

By on Jun 29, 2011 at 2:43 PM
Business June 29, 2011

According to AllThingsD Specific Media has acquired Myspace from News Corp. for $35 million. Reportedly, Myspace’s CEO, Mike Jones, will remain for “an interim period,” and the social network will lay off half of its staff, or about 200 people. Myspace, which has seen a sharp decline in traffic over the years since it was acquired by News Corp in 2005 for $580 million, announced in January that it was laying off 47% of its employees. News Corp. will maintain less than a 5% stake in the company.

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  • http://twitter.com/UrbanEnigma Yves

    I still think they paid too much

  • mindkilla

    Wow, I remember when Myspace was the shiznit!!!

    • Anonymous

      I know! what the heck happen. I remember it was bada** to have your own themed page with music. I think bots/spammers ruined myspace. plus all the relationship drama having a myspace caused us haha. “Oh the painful drama filled Memories”

      • numetheus

        I hated it because of all that crap. People had annoying pages full of distracting shit. I went Facebook because it was more simple. The appeal of social media is to stay social. That means keep up with my friends and share things and do it quickly and efficiently. MySpace chose expression over social media. I don’t care about expressing myself on the net. I do care about staying in touch with friends. That’s why people went to Facebook. Easy, fast, efficient social experience. Not bloated bling bling in your face shit that MySpace gives you.

    • rmcgoff

      Lack of innovation, basically. When they did finally start innovating, it was way too late.

      • Chut Pata

        Innovation companies have to keep innovating.  Once they stop doing that, and try to live off reputation, they get run over by upstarts.  It always happen when innovation companies go corporate.  The corporate executives are generally conservative, and believe in high profits with risks, so they get fat bonuses.  They cut down RnD to bloat profits, and then companies take a nose dive.  By that time the executives would have taken their fat bonuses and moved on to other preys.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ML67DN65LGCQWCZENTJX5Z7TYI Dollie Flynn

    I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, LiveCent.com

    • Anonymous

      you’re just on every tech blog huh? 

      SNITCHED ON! **Reported**

      • Anonymous

        Seriously, these ads are popping up everywhere. 

        If I got that stuff for that cheap, I’d turn around and resell it for a profit and try my best to keep it a secret.

      • http://twitter.com/rdg666 Renee Gerber

        You know that’s a spam robot, right?

    • Michale11111

      Scumbag spammer

    • Chut Pata

      A good “Dis-Advertisement”.  People would remember this site and would never buy anything from it, cuz it has got to be a scam website.  People should also remember those who liked it.  Someone just went to the website of the persons who liked it, and wrecked it. lol.

  • Jona Sy

    Wow, News Corp paid 580 million for MySpace and sold it for 35 million …and ironically it seems like Specific Media got robbed.

  • DonRSD aka PSN DonVCorleone

    myspace lol
    i havent been on there in 2+ years, since i created a facebook page.

  • Michael Le Gere

    I don’t know how much money Tom Anderson got when MySpace was originally sold to News Corp., but I think it was a lot more than 35 million! Huzzah, 1 point for the hard working entrepreneur, and 0 points for big meanie head corporations! 

  • Anonymous

    Dang, even Tweetdeck was bought out by Twitter for $40 million vs. $35 million for myspace.

  • Michale11111

    Why would anyone pay money for MySpace?

    • Michale11111

      However, if it’s Rupert Murdoch that booked a big loss on this deal it’s a good deal.

  • Jesster King

    They payed $34,999,999 too many, anything that they might actually own might out weigh the negative connotation by anyone who isn’t a wannabe porn star or a lame tween who hasn’t heard of facebook yet.

  • http://infotainmentempire.blogspot.com Rob

    Wow. Surprised someone actually would be interested in purchasing MySpace. Rupert just lost HOW much on that investment? Not to mention any costs to keep it running from 05 until now.

  • Nycpctech2011

    Wow. Haven’t heard about myspace in a while.

  • http://twitter.com/praticuschaotic Jon Doe

    So does this mean that they’re going to get rid of that atrocious design that Fox News made Myspace go to? Maybe they could return to a less SHOUTING IN YOUR FACE EVERY TIME YOU GO TO LOOK AT THE PAGE design and something a little more similar to the old design where it was more understated and less of a media whore page and more of a social networking page? Really…the design right now looks like someone vomited E! Channel all over my internet.

    Also: does this mean that Pennywise is no longer releasing music for Fox News?

  • Anonymous

    jesus! a 545 mill loss… lol

  • Anonymous

    Who? Mike Jones!! Who? Mike Jones!! Who? Mike Jones!!

  • http://www.cellpig.com/ Cellpig.com Co-Owner Bryan

    WOW…I never had a myspace but this loss is staggering.

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