Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

The Myspace Sweepstakes Drag on–Another Bid Deadline Today As Sale Deadline Looms

Yes, Myspace is still for sale.

But, no, no one has yet made a good enough bid–in other words, at the more than $100 million level its owner, News Corp., has sought–to knock out anyone else.

And who knows who will, as those working on the deal gave a deadline today for any revised bids for the social entertainment hub.

Among those remaining in the running: two strategic bidders, although the CEO of the Vevo music service has denied interest; several private equity players, including Criterion Capital Partners, which bought Bebo from AOL for a song; and an aggressive inside effort by CEO Michael Jones, which would include venture investors and a possible continued smaller ownership by News Corp. (News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

News Corp. is holding out for a few more bids today from those who had expressed initial interest, said sources close to the situation, after the company provided additional information about long troubled service.

That included data showing some increased user engagement from a recent Facebook artists profile app launch and a new music playback system, among other efforts to revive Myspace.

But, added sources, this is likely to be the final call for bids, since News Corp. reportedly would like to complete the deal and get Myspace off its books before end of its fiscal quarter this month.

“I think somebody with some brains and guts could do pretty well with the property,” said one News Corp. insider, noting that the Chinese social site Renren is smaller than Myspace in both size and revenue, even though it now has a $5 billion valuation after its recent IPO.

Perhaps, but such a windfall seems about as unlikely as Myspace winning back its once-might social networking crown.

Thus, finally settling on a decent bidder is Myspace’s best–and perhaps only–hope going forward.

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google