Just a few months ago, Rupert Murdoch was telling us "Hey! I want in on this internet thingy!". And now the ubermogul and possible inspirer of Bond villains looks like he's getting back into the dotcom race: NewsCorp has just splashed out $580m on Intermix, the owner of the incredibly popular Myspace.com.
For those not in the know, Internetnews says Myspace is:
a social networking site which is the fifth-ranked Web domain in terms of page views, according to comScore Media Metrix. MySpace integrates profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music downloads, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, chat rooms and user forums.
We reported on the rise of Myspace earlier this year, saying it was "trendier than Friendster" - but in truth, hardcore webheads have actually been fairly sniffy of Myspace's success. Fair enough, it's not pretty, and Intermix portfolio is rather ragged: greetings cards, quizzes, music downloads. But where Murdoch sniffs profit, he usually finds it.
Murdoch's quoted in The Guardian's own report:
"We see a great opportunity to combine the popularity of Intermix's sites, particularly MySpace, with our existing online assets to provide a richer experience for today's internet users."
The question is, richer for who, Rupert?
