News Corp. lost $254 million on MySpace, which it finally sloughed off in June at the deeply discounted price of $35 million.
In its Wednesday earnings report, News Corp. said it posted an operating loss of $137 million during the fourth quarter for the "Other" segment, which included MySpace. While News Corp. actually trimmed its losses in that division by $37 million from the same period last year, it still caused earnings to decline.
PaidContent notes that losses from MySpace drove News Corp.'s overall net income down 22 percent, to $683 million.
News Corp. bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million, but years later, it struggled to sell the site. After about six agonizing months of proceedings, News Corp. finally sold the beleaguered site to lesser-known advertising company Specific Media for beans compared to what the media giant originally paid.
News Corp. certainly took a bath with MySpace, but is $254 million really all it lost? If so, that amount is much less than previously estimated. Taking into account the amount News Corp. spent running the business, and eventually trying unsuccessfully to resuscitate it, Ars Technica calculated that MySpace cost the Rupert Murdoch empire no less than $1 billion.
Before News Corp. sold the site for a reported $35 million, reports were circulating that it wouldn't accept less than $100 million for MySpace. PaidContent points out that, curiously enough, around this time, the company valued MySpace at close to $300 million.
MySpace losses aside, News Corp. is still swimming in cash. The company reported total income of $1.35 billion for the fourth quarter, which ended June 30.