In today’s top social media news, it was announced that News Corp. has sold MySpace to advertising network Specific Media for $35 million. That has to hurt since News Corp. paid a whopping $580 million to buy the site from its original owners in 2005. Of course, the hit isn’t a complete surprise since MySpace’s popularity and traffic has dropped drastically in recent years, but News Corp. was reportedly expecting at least $100 million.
What IS surprising is that Specific Media announced that Justin Timberlake is taking an ownership stake in MySpace and will have a direct role in reshaping the focus of the site. Apparently JT was inspired by his role as former Facebook president Sean Parker in The Social Network….ironically, just last week, Parker explained why MySpace failed in an interview with Jimmy Fallon at the NExTWORK Conference in New York.
Timberlake released this statement on his vision for MySpace, “There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. MySpace has the potential to be that place. Art is inspired by people and vice versa, so there’s a natural social component to entertainment.”
It should be interesting to see how the new MySpace shapes up, and what it means for both users and advertisers.
According to MySpace, we should know more about what to expect later this summer. Stay tuned!