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Three Years Later, Buying MySpace Looks Like One Of Murdoch’s Smartest BetsOctober 15th, 2008 at 3:30 pmSource:TechCrunch Facebook has just announced 25 winners of cash grants from the fbFund. These grants are given to the Facebook developers that are creating some of the most promising apps on Facebook. The fbFund is a $10 million fund announced a year ago by Facebook, Accel Partners, and the Founders Fund. Below is a list of the 25 winners, out of 600 applicants. They each received about $25,000 and will be eligible for five top prices of $225,000 (about $2 million, when all is said and done). To help determine the final five, Facebook will have a page where members can vote on their favorite apps. The cash is a free-and-clear grant, but Accel and Founders Fund get first right of refusal if they decide to invest in any of the finalists.Source:TechCrunch Three years ago today, Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace and its parent company Intermix for $580 million. That turned out to be money well spent. The last time we ran the numbers, we figured that MySpace alone is worth between $3 billion and $20 billion, depending on how much you value each user. Fox Interactive Media (which is mostly MySpace) accounted for about $850 million in revenues last fiscal year (which ended in June), and is projected to hit $1 billion next year. It was supposed to hit $1 billion this year, but never mind. Unlike other social networks, MySpace is actually making a profit. The company now employs 1,600 people worldwide, compared to 150 in October, 2005—more than a tenfold increase. The social network has grown as well. MySpace now has 73 million unique visitors a month in the U.S., according to comScore, compared to 24 million three years ago. (Facebook has 41 million). That means MySpace reaches about 40 percent of the online population, compared to 14 percent three years ago. Those visitors, on average, spend 263 minutes a month each on the site, versus 83 minutes in 2005. |
