Although at first glance it seems like a really raw deal, News Corporation’s recent selling of Myspace to Specific Media for $35 million has been labeled a “relief” for News Corporation and for investors. The new owner of Myspace is an online advertising company hailing from Irvine, CA. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation originally paid $580 million for Myspace in the summer of 2005. It seems that purchase was made at the peak of Myspace’s social media reign. Since then, the site has struggled tremendously with its brand positioning and user influx.
To help remedy matters, the new management at Myspace has already spoken of a refocusing that will take place to vamp up the site and regenerate user interest. To that aim, a deal was struck with pop and R&B singer Justin Timberlake. Through it, Justin will captain a team of six at his own office at Myspace and come up with projects to bring music back to the network’s forefront.
The Hollywood Reporter had these comments to share from Johnny Wright, Timberlake’s long-time manager:
“Whether it becomes a talent competition or something like that, those are things that we will still flesh out … we definitely want to bring the industry back to Myspace to really look at the talented people that have put their faces there.”
A Myspace press conference has been scheduled for August 17. Justin Timberlake will be present along the Specific Media folks. Stay tuned.
Article by Pierre Zarokian of iClimber, a Social Media Marketing Company.