Almost six private equity firms and companies are expected to submit bids for News Corp.'s (who also owns the Wall Street Journal...how many of you read it?) Myspace by the end of this week, according to sources close to all parties involved. A few of these companies include private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, Redscout Ventures and Criterion Capital Partners LLC, owner of social networking site Bebo. It is expected that some firms plan to combine on bids.
News Corp. has had talks with a Chinese Internet company about a potential deal also. Online music video site, Vevo, also looked at a potential deal with Myspace, but the company's interest in the site has slowly decreased as time progresses, sources report.
One suitor said that News Corp. is seeking bids of no less than $100 million. News Corp. paid $580 million to buy Myspace in 2005. Talk about a LOSS! They can thank Facebook and Twitter for the depreciation...
Myspace has attempted to reposition itself as a hub for music, entertainment and games, but its traffic and ad revenues are plummeting. In March, Myspace traffic dropped 49% from a year earlier to 36.1 million unique U.S. visitors, its lowest monthly total since February 2006, according to comScore Inc.
The News Corp. segment that includes Myspace reported an operating loss of $156 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, primarily because of the site's poor performance.
The pool of suitors has narrowed since February, which is when News Corp. opened MySpace's books to a broad array of companies, take note NFL Owners.
As there is no concrete suitor, or deal structure for that matter, sources say that News Corp. expects to be able to announce a deal around June.
SCREAM @ ME!!!
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