• Business Week, Monday, December 4, 2006 11 AM

MySpace's growth may slowing, but it's still been a stellar 1.5 years for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. The media conglomerate acquired MySpace parent Intermix Media for $580 million in the summer of 2005, followed by the $650 million acquisition of IGN and online movie site Rotten Tomatoes.

Those savvy purchases gained the media giant some real clout with Generation Y and, it hopes, advertisers, too. Nowadays, Fox Interactive Media is beginning to repay the fee; the News Corp. Internet arm expects to generate $500 million sales for the fiscal year ending June 2007. Murdoch himself estimates the company's worth at more than $6 billion.

Also, MySpace is still a largely untapped opportunity for advertisers. Its countless pages of questionable content are a concern, but advertisers are circumventing these problems by buying page sponsorships for their brands. In some instances, these sponsorships are turning into mini-Web portals.

MySpace is also going mobile: A major deal involving a big carrier is expected in a few weeks. It already has an existing mobile deal with Helio, a niche player aimed at teens and 20somethings. It's also expanding overseas. With some 79 million international users, Murdoch's next conquest could potentially be News Corp.'s biggest: China.

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