MySpace takes bids from six companies in selloff

News Corp's plans to sell off MySpace will come to a head this week, insiders said Tuesday night. About six companies, possibly including Vevo and Bebo's recent acquirer Criterion Capital Partners, were all expected to make bids by the end of the week. A Wall Street Journal source named an unnamed Chinese company as having talked about a deal, but it wasn't said whether this company would make the bid.

The deal would see relatively stiff bidding and require at least $100 million on the table for a bid. If bidding didn't escalate, the sale would see News Corp take a loss of $480 million for what it paid for the social network in 2005. A deal could be ready by June, tipsters said.

MySpace's face under the plans could vary widely, ranging from being folded into another company's services to News Corp keeping some level of stake in the resulting project.

MySpace was bought as a way for News Corp to claim a distinctive community online but began a long, gradual decline in users after a relatively brief competition with Facebook. It was eventually respun as a media hub with social networking elements in 2010 but has increasingly been a liability for its parent, having lost $156 million just in the fall alone.

By Electronista Staff