Chinese internet holding company Tencent, and Criterion Capital, which owns the social networking website Bebo, are among at least five companies expected to bid for NewsCorp’s struggling social networking website MySpace this week. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp hopes to have a buyer that will pay at least $100m for MySpace, by the end of the week.
MySpace has been treading water, just barely, this year as it continues to lose members probably due to the surging popularity of Facebook, which continues to grow its member base with no end in site. In the first four weeks of this year MySpace lost another 10 million members, dropping from 73 million users to 63 million, according to internet marketing research company comScore.
MySpace has been losing ground since NewsCorp paid $500 million for it in 2005, although at the time NewsCorp’s purchase was seen as a good move because MySpace was still viewed as a the leader in the social networking space. However, over the last four years the ever growing popularity of websites like Facebook and Twitter have bought on a case of collective amnesia in former MySpace fans who gradually jumped ship.
