Singer set for lead role after sale of Myspace

HE PLAYED the role of technology entrepreneur Sean Parker in Facebook film The Social Network,but now Justin Timberlake has become a social media investor for real.

The singer turned actor is set to “lead the business strategy” and “give consumers a reason to come back” to beleaguered social network Myspace, according to its new owners, Specific Media.

News Corporation sold its once promising online media investment to Specific, a Californian digital advertising company, for $35 million (€24 million) – about a third of the price tag it had been seeking for the social network.

News Corp paid $580 million for Myspace in 2005. By 2007, it had more than 300 million registered users worldwide and a $12 billion valuation. But by last November, its user base had collapsed to 91 million, as networkers moved to Facebook and Twitter.

Specific Media said Timberlake (30) will take an undisclosed stake in the company and keep an office at Myspace, overseeing six staff focused on developing products.

Acquiring Myspace – at one time credited with an influential role in the marketing of new music artists – was initially seen as a brave and daring investment by News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch.

A $900 million advertising deal with Google a year later made the deal look like a canny move on the part of Mr Murdoch.

Myspace revenues leapt from $1 million a month to $50 million a month, offices were opened across the world and Mr Murdoch confidently predicted that the site would generate $1 billion in advertising revenues by the end of 2008.

But Myspace became cluttered with unappealing ads for teeth-straightening and weight-loss products; chief executive Chris DeWolfe departed after clashes with News Corp management and users began to desert the site.

The site continued to shed users while Facebook was adding them in their millions. Myspace then revealed it had missed advertising targets set under the Google deal. Owen Van Natta, another chief executive, left after internal disagreements, to be succeeded by Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn – Mr Hirschhorn also departed soon afterwards.

For the past 18 months, News Corp has attempted to stem the tide of operating losses at Myspace. Several relaunches of Myspace failed abysmally. – ( Additional reporting: Financial Times Limited / Bloomberg)