MySpace, the once mighty social networking web site that is now a shadow of its former self, has been officially sold off by its former owner News Corporation to the advertising company Specific Media. AllThingsDigital reports that the final sale price for MySpace turned out to be $35 million which is slightly higher than previous estimates of between $20 million to $30 million. However it"s still well below the $100 million price tag that News Corporation was reportedly looking for at one point.
In an email to MySpace employees that confirmed the sale (and reprinted on TechCrunch) MySpace"s current CEO Mike Jones also confirmed he would be leaving the company over the next couple of months as he assists Specific Media on the transition to the new owners. He also confirmed that there would be "a significant reduction in our workforce." AllThingsDigital reports that as many as half of MySpace"s 400 current workers could be laid off.
News Corporation bought the once high flying MySpace for a whopping $580 million in 2005. However the site started losing visitors to its biggest rival Facebook and started to lose money for News Corporation. The company wanted to sell off MySpace before the end of June so it could get it off the books before the end of News Corp"s current fiscal year.
As far as MySpace"s new owners, Specific Media was formed in 1999 and is one of the biggest providers of online ads with 170 million unique visitors recorded by the company in May.