MySpace has surpassed Google as they currently ranked as the number three web site of the world, in terms of page views and user time online, just behind Yahoo and MSN (source: comScore Media Metrix).
Now Myspace has 45,579,475 registered users (as of 12.28.2005), and increasing at 160,000 people per day, receives 12.5 billion page views per month and known as website that transforming today's popular culture and digital lifestyle. Myspace achieve it just in two years of operations in Tom Anderson hand as the President and Chris DeWolfe, the CEO.
Table taken from comScore Media Metrix with object All Persons at U.S. Home/Work/College-University Locations.
With statistics numbers like that, Myspace can launch a multi-billion dollar IPO, and Intermix Media as the owner of Myspace in early 2005 were positioning MySpace to be the Cinderella IPO of 2006.
By September 30, 2005, however, in one of the most nimble, noncompetitive acquisitions ever, Fox Interactive Media, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation, bagged MySpace (and its parent company, Intermix Media) for just $629 million (including the buy out of preferred shareholders and unvested stock options).
Although MySpace is mixing it up with the giants on the Internet, Intermix, the Myspace parent's company was slogging through a series of scandals in the summer of 2005. When News Corporation came calling in May 2005, Intermix Media had just been slapped with a lawsuit for AdWare and SpyWare by Eliot Spitzer's office and the Intermix market capitalization had sunk to $137 million. In light of the lawsuit, lack of investor confidence and reduced cash position of Intermix, the News Corporation offer of $629 million was considered by many financial professionals at the time to be generous. According to Jim Moglia, Executive Managing Director, Harris Nesbitt, "Having a stable bidder at a price that was high for the time was a good deal."
And since MySpace acquisitioned by Fox Interactive, Inc., which was never named in the Adware/Spyware lawsuit, has continued to be on a tear, expanding its services, adding new users in the core advertising demographic of 16-34 year olds, and attracting those users to spend more time online.
Will MySpace be the Mother Lode Rupert Murdoch has been searching for to attract more investors to News Corp.? Will answering to the "man" kill the independent spirit that attracted teens and bands to MySpace in the first place? Can the co-founders of MySpace, who have taken the company from zero to 160 employees and from zero to 45 million registered users in just two years, hope to compete with experienced executives like Terry Semel (CEO, Yahoo!) and Eric Schmidt (CEO, Google)?
