News Corp. squashes MySpace sale reports

Media giant News Corp. denied reports it is in negotiations to sell struggling social network MySpace. "We are definitely not in any ongoing talks for a sale of MySpace," News Corp. digital chief Jonathan Miller said during an appearance at the annual Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, dismissing the reports as "fabrications." Miller said the company plans to relaunch MySpace later this year, with a pronounced emphasis on multimedia content like music.

News Corp. acquired MySpace for $580 million in July 2005. The site has since fallen far behind rival social networks Facebook and Twitter, with co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe exiting in April 2009--DeWolfe's replacement Owen Van Natta stepped down less than a year later, and in June 2010, co-president Jason Hirschhorn announced his resignation just four months after he and co-president Mike Jones took over their roles.

In mid-May, MySpace released new software development kits enabling developers to integrate its social networking tools into their iPhone and Android applications. During an interview with FierceMobileContent, MySpace Mobile GM and VP of product and business development Bjorn Laurin said the service's userbase is increasingly mobile--interaction with the site via Android smartphones increased 230 percent over the last 12 months, and more than 30 percent of all MySpace traffic now originates via mobile device. "We're going to build our own mobile applications on these SDKs," Laurin said. "There's so much stuff you can do with this--the list is as long as possible."

For more on MySpace's future:
- read this Reuters article

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