• TechCrunch/Silicon Alley Insider, Tuesday, January 27, 2009 11:30 AM

Julia Angwin, editor of The Wall Street Journal's technology section "Digits" has authored a "tell-all" book about News Corp. company MySpace. The book isn't set for publication until March 17, but TechCrunch has a copy of a draft. MySpace is quick to point out that it had no involvement in the book whatsoever. Michael Arrington adds that, "It's clear from the tone of the book that Angwin's sources are primarily or solely people who've left the company, many of whom have a bone to pick with MySpace or parent company News Corp."

In any event, the book's big revelation is that rival Facebook offered to sell to MySpace for a puny $75 million in February 2005. Co-founder Chris DeWolfe said no, but after News Corp. swooped in to buy Intermix, MySpace's parent, for $580 million that summer, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg came back in the fall asking for $750 million. Once again, DeWolfe said no.

Well, that certainly turned out to be a big miss. Since then, Facebook has surpassed MySpace as the Web's No. 1 social network. In fact, just last week, comScore numbers showed that Facebook now draws nearly twice as much traffic as the former No. 1. Depending who you ask, Zuckerberg's firm is now valued somewhere between $2.5 and $4 billion. As Silicon Alley Insider's Nicholas Carlson says, "Of course, given the slow pace of innovation at MySpace since its acquisition by News Corp, its entirely possible Facebook would never have become the cultural touchstone it is today under Chris and Tom's leadership instead of Mark's."

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