Here is the news excerpt:
From correspondents in New York
July 19, 2005
MEDIA
giant News Corporation said overnight it has reached a deal to buy
Intermix Media for $US580 million ($769.8 million), expanding its
business into internet news blogs.
With the deal, News Corporation’s (nws.ASX:Quote,News) US web traffic will nearly double to more than 45 million unique monthly users.
As part of the deal, Intermix exercised its option to acquire the 47 per cent of MySpace.com that it does not already own.
MySpace.com and Intermix’s more than 30 sites will become part of News Corporation’s newly formed Fox Interactive Media unit.
The acquisition “underscores News Corporation’s commitment to expand
its internet presence by offering a deeper, richer online experience
for its millions of users,” said the company, which recently moved its
headquarters to the United States from Australia.
Intermix attracts about 27 million users to its sites specialising in
entertainment, humor, gaming and social networking, as well as sharing
or sampling of pictures, music and video.
“Intermix is an important acquisition for News Corp, instantly doubling
the number of visitors to our sites and providing an ideal foundation
on which to meaningfully increase our Internet presence,” said News
Corp chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch.
“Intermix’s brands, such as MySpace.com, are some of the web’s hottest
properties and resonate with the same audiences that are most attracted
to Fox’s news, sports and entertainment offerings. We see a great
opportunity to combine the popularity of Intermix’s sites, particularly
MySpace, with our existing online assets to provide a richer experience
for today’s Internet users.”
MySpace is the fifth-ranked US web domain in terms of page views,
according to comScore Networks, an internet research firm, with a large
following in the 16- to 34-year-old demographic group.
The site atttacts about eight per cent of all ads on the Internet,
putting it in the company of giants Yahoo, Google and America Online.
It has also become a major music destination, with some 350,000 artists
including REM and the Black Eyed Peas having used the site to launch
new albums and enable users to sample and share songs.
