News Corp paid $580m (£361m) for MySpace in 2005

Discussion: Six years after News Corp acquired MySpace, they sold it for $545 million less than their original purchase price.  MySpace is different from other social networking sites (like Facebook and Twitter) because it was founded by people from the entertainment industry who struggled with the technology needed to make the company successful as it grew.  MySpace has become a specialized niche platform for musicians and music fans, but it will never become the giant social network that it set out to be.

Source: BBC News

Date: June 30, 2011

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13972392

Question for discussion:

• What made MySpace so unsuccessful as a social networking site?  Or, what is different about Facebook that has made it so much more successful than MySpace?
• In March, Warren Buffet stated that he believes that social networking sites (such as MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are overpriced in the market today.  Are these other networking sites also going to see a great decline in their value in the years to come?  Is the social network bubble eventually going to burst?  (Buffett article:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-25/most-networking-site-companies-will-be-overpriced-buffett-says.html)