Myspace

Yesterday something occurred that we haven’t seen in a long, long time. That rare creature was positive news about the oft-maligned MySpace. The latest incarnation that is Justin Timberlake fueled (heck, he played Sean Parker in The Social Network so why not?!) project registered an increase of 1 million new users in January. Not bad considering most charts about people using MySpace look like a backwards hockey stick.

I’ve always been a fan of the underdog, so maybe that’s why I feel obligated to wave the pom-poms for Myspace. They’ve got a new team, a legitimate celebrity backer in Justin Timberlake and a snazzy new goal, to become the home of what’s new in entertainment. Yesterday, Justin Timberlake took the stage at CES 2012 to announce a partnership between Myspace and Panasonic. They call it Myspace TV. Not a groundbreaking name, but it says it.

About a week ago, Myspace took a big leap forward but hardly anyone noticed. It’s part of their new owner’s push to become a “leading social entertainment destination” and you gotta give them kudos for trying. Myspace is, after all, one of the classics in social media so I’d hate to see them go down without a fight. This new round is all about the music. In its heyday, Myspace was a haven for independent musicians and they were the ones who stuck around when everyone else

How many times have we seen companies get offer millions or even billions of dollars, then either walked away from the offer, or gladly accepted it? Time and time again we see founders and CEOs make the huge decision to risk the odds and try to grow their company to something amazing, or take the money and run. One of the best examples that comes to mind is Marc Cuban, who sold his Broadcast.com company to Yahoo in 1998 for $5.9 billion in stock. After the sale Cuban diversified his money to avoid the

I was never a big fan of social networks. Sure I had an account on Friendster and MySpace, but I created them with an educational purpose in mind (i.e., I wanted to know what the buzz was about, and what kind of web trends would emerge as a consequence of those sites). Then Twitter and Facebook came along, and I also created accounts on both and started using them to understand what was going on. I wasn’t that impressed initially, and was worried that time spent on those sites was basically be wasted

It seems like the only news that is ever heard these days around MySpace is bad news and today isn’t any different. Advertisers are moving away from the site because declines in visitors continue to grow. All in all it’s not a pretty picture as the Wall Street Journal reports

I feel bad for MySpace. They came to us with a plan to socialize the internet. It was an easy way for everyone, from the student to the CEO to get together and share their interests, their thoughts and the ups and downs of their day. With a single click, strangers from across the world could become friends. It’s like that old Coca-Cola commercial where people of every race, creed and color stand hand-in-hand while they learn to sing in perfect harmony. So what happened? How did MySpace go from

It never feels good to write about this kind of thing around the new year but if there is one thing about writing about business one learns that it can be heartless at times. Myspace, the perpetually troubled former social networking high flyer, is reportedly looking into the possibility of laying off up to to 50% of its existing staff of 1,000 employees. Liz Gannes from the NetworkEffect at All Things Digital reports:

MySpace and Google Inc. will continue doing business together under a long-term deal that includes the Google Display Network for the first time ever. Nada Stirratt, MySpace Chief Revenue Officer, has been widely quoted as saying, “We look forward to participating in the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Ad Exchange to increase yield across our display ad inventory.”

“We’ve been clear that MySpace is a problem.” “The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable.” They must show improvement in “in quarters, not in years.” News Corp. president Chase Carey spoke to investors earlier this week and everyone is talking about it. He made it clear that the 70 million drop in ad and search revenue wasn’t going to be tolerated and that without a major improvement MySpace’s days were numbered.