So News Corporation stock is trading at a near 52 week high, up 20 percent in 2006 to about $20 per share. No doubt the buoyancy in the News Corp. camp these days is thanks in part to the resounding
success that was the company's acquisition of MySpace parent Intermix nearly a year ago. But, as CNNMioney columnist Paul La Monica says, "it's premature to think that MySpace will turn News Corp.
into the next Google or Yahoo." As huge an impact as MySpace has on the lives of some 70 million teens and 20-somethings, it's not nearly the revenue driver of say, Fox, its broadcast network. In
fact, MySpace, as part of Fox Interactive Media, is so small, "it is merely lumped into the 'Other' category of News Corp business units," La Monica says, which accounted for approximately 5 percent
of News Corp.'s total sales in the first quarter. That's not to say that FIM and MySpace can't or won't grow significantly--because they likely will--but to enter Google or Yahoo territory? That's not
so likely, unless News Corp. starts selling ads all over the place, which of course would compromise the site's standing amongst its user base. For the time being, it would do well to concentrate on
search, for which it commands a pithy 0.6 percent market share. Yahoo powers MySpace's search, but at 0.6 percent, it's definitely an underexploited revenue source. Rumor has it News Corp. is looking
to do something soon: perhaps a new alliance with either Google or MSN, or perhaps a new search engine of its own.
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