As News Corp (News - Alert)., looks for a buyer for the relatively low-performing Myspace site, it appears the asking price will be over $100 million, according to media reports. Business Insider says the price tag is that high even though Myspace is experiencing "a serious decline."
Reuters reports that News Corp., has already started to look at the possible "sale or spin-off of its troubled social entertainment site, Myspace."
It appears about 20 parties so far are interested in acquiring Myspace, according to Reuters (News - Alert). News Corp executives and bankers from Allen & Co will meet with the interested parties during the second week of March, Reuters said.
Zynga and News Corp., did have some "preliminary talks," but Zynga "isn't all that interested"now, reports Business Insider.
Still, Reuters reports that mobile social networking site MocoSpace and gaming site Zynga may be interested in the Myspace site for strategic reasons.
In addition, Myspace CEO Mike Jones may be attempting to get a group of investors to buy the site, according to BusinessInsider.
News Corp., purchased Myspace in 2005 for $580 million.
It falls way behind Facebook in popularity. TMCnet CEO Rich Tehrani at the close of last year noted that Myspace "is taking a beating from Facebook in virtually every way, and the graph of daily reach of both Facebook and MySpace tells the story quite well. … Facebook is at around 38 percent while Myspace is hovering around 2 percent.”
“Negative press and departures of key execs paint a poor picture for the company under current management,” Tehrani added.
As of December, possible purchasers listed by Tehrani included: Zynga, Baidu, and “Microsoft, Yahoo and some combination of Twitter, MySpace and maybe even Skype rolled-up under into a single company – or at least to be owned by a single investment fund.”
