Google, Yahoo, Microsoft seen in MySpace ad talks
A $900 million search ad deal between Google Inc. and News Corp. expires this summer, reportedly setting up a competition involving the search giant, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
But declining Web traffic and other milestones on News Corp.'s MySpace have been far short of the goals laid out in the existing contract which expires in August, according to the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp.
The Journal cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter on Tuesday who said that any deal will be for significantly less money and will be much narrower.
The ad contract was a major factor in News Corp.'s ownership of MySpace, which it paid $650 million for.
But the social network has been surpassed by Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc payday loans., which has more than half a billion unique users compared to MySpace's 109 million users.
A number of high-level executives have left the company, amid a 30 percent cut in work force and a $450 million write down of the value of MySpace and other digital businesses by News Corp.
TechCrunch reported Tuesday that the search ad contract competition comes at a time that News Corp. may sell the Fox Audience Network (FAN), which it says serves most of the ads on MySpace. The blog reports that Menlo Park-based Silver Lake Partners is among the bidders and that if FAN is sold, MySpace is likely to quickly be sold as well.