Rupert's MySpace mea culpa
Everybody else's fault, actually
By Natalie Apostolou
23rd October 2011
War-weary News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch made one concession at the company’s high drama AGM on Friday, stating the MySpace acquisition was a “huge mistake.”
The sorry tale of the social network’s digital demise at the hands of NewsCorp began with the purchase of MySpace for $US580 million in 2005. “We paid $US600 million. We could have sold it for $US6 billion a month later,” Murdoch told shareholders.
“I made a huge mistake. We then proceeded to mismanage it in every possible way,” he said. But Murdoch then threw in the caustic barb, “all of the people concerned with it are no longer with the company.”
This isn’t strictly true as former AOL CEO Jon Miller, who joined News Corp in March 2009 as its great digital savant, is still apparently in Camp Murdoch as CEO of digital media and chief digital officer.
He was brought in to - among other digital super charging duties - turn the ailing fortunes of MySpace around. Despite ousting a lot of bodies and a couple of CEOs, it was pretty clear that this feat wasn’t going to happen. He then helped shift the asset into the hands of Justin Timberlake and Specific Media for $US35 million earlier this year.
Miller also spearheaded News Corp's foray into its iPad only newspaper, The Daily, and is also in charge of Hulu, which was pulled out of serious sale discussions earlier this month.
Perhaps Murdoch was pointing the finger at former MySpace CEO (and Miller oustee) Owen Van Natta who is now at Zynga as EVP and earned $US43 million last year; or Mike Lang, one of the architects of the MySpace acquisition when he was an EVP at News Corp, who is now the freshly installed CEO of Miramax; or former MySpace CEO Mike Jones who has recently started a Los Angeles-based incubator? The Register
By some strange coincidence my other great clanger (mistake/error) story involves a railway.
And as clangers go, they don't come better than this. Isobard Kingdom Brunel's Atmospheric Railway.
Links
http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_events/atmospheric_railway.php
http://www.gkweb.net/myheroes/brunel/railways/atmospheric.php
7 comments:
Walking across water.
http://bit.ly/xKUzgU
Common sense and innovation, I love it.
When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be this one.
http://youtu.be/6PFZxcd3clw
In a nutshell, what's he saying, his feet are freezing?
Good Evening H, I made the same association, but I couldn’t find the place of your earlier "Theo van Gogh loopt over water" link. So I thought General Interest/means of transport, don’t ask.
At the 1:40 mark, the only time Theo speaks himself, he says: "Do you have to bless then? He did something like that, didn’t he."
Such a contrast to the photo in your post "You may no longer blaspheme about religions that would stone you to death for blaspheming". It’s still hard to believe.
Unfortunately, I cannot warm his feet.
Voor jou, een gezellige avond en voor straks welterusten.
M
Maren, voor jou, een mooie ochtend en een dikke kus nu.
but I couldn’t find the place of your earlier "Theo van Gogh loopt over water" link.
Do you know something Chuck? I had the very same problem, hence the direct youtube link.
Those search bar thingees, aren't very powerful, that's why there are two different ones.
Although I sometimes find my self searching the wrong blog for what I'm looking for, I have on quite a few occasions, and as a last resort, gone to Google and tried my luck there.
Invariably it finds what I have been looking for, invariably in the wrong place.
Something to bear in mind if you are struggling.
H
As tragic and unnecessary as Theo's murder was, in one way it was not in vain.
The memory of the man and the manner of his death, will live on forever, reminding us exactly what Islam is, and what it produces in its disciples.
That said, what an awful waste of a man's life, his work and his philosophy.
Arrived safely and stored. M
award for bridge
bit.ly/GBOpKZ
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