Murdoch only bought MySpace a few months ago for US$580 Million, now he has made a deal worth US$900 Million with Google. And this is without even selling MySpace. You do the maths! This is what you call innovation corporate American style (well, Murdoch is an Australian or sorts); let everyone else do the innovation and take all the risks, and once the innovation has moved to the mainstream, buy it. MySpace is crap anyway. There’s something creepy about the whole thing. Or perhaps this is just a version of the ‘mainstream’ that is creepy. No wonder I am such a bad capitalist; I’m like innovation and the ‘mainstream’ can’t innovate, just appropriate.
That’s the thinking of Google and News Corp., owner of MySpace.com, as the two online giants announced Monday a partnership that allows Google to deliver advertising and search results to MySpace users, along with other sites owned by Fox Interactive Media, a News Corp. subsidiary.In exchange, Google will pay Fox Interactive Media $900 million over three years beginning with the first quarter of 2007. Fox must achieve a certain amount of traffic or users on its sites, as well as other unspecified commitments.
“We believe that our innovative technologies will be of real benefit to Fox Interactive Media’s growing number of users,” Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.
Under the terms of the deal, a small Google search box will be incorporated into the Web pages of sites like MySpace, which has evolved from an online hangout for teenagers into a gargantuan network linking an estimated 98 million registered users of all ages. (link)
