The term “ridiculously wealthy” may still apply, but MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson have renewed their contracts with News Corp., and reports indicate that the pair won’t become quite as rich as they might have wanted.
Almost four months ago, our own David Utter wrote, “Anderson and DeWolfe think they are worth $12.5 million each annually, thanks to MySpace.” He later added, “The deal they could agree to right away would be $15 million each, spread over two years,” and it seems that this second option is exactly what came into play.
Granted, there haven’t yet been any official confirmations or statements, but people at paidContent.org and the Los Angeles Times have both heard the same thing. Also, it’s worth noting that News Corp.’s investors will probably be much happier with this arrangement than with the asked-for $50 million.
Still, $30 million (even over two years’ time and between two people) isn’t exactly an insult. Peter Kafka states, “Our Kremlinologists interpret the renewed, big-dollar contract as a clear message from Rupert Murdoch: MySpace, for better or worse, is DeWolfe’s baby — and if you have a problem with that, you’re out of luck.”
The salary does depend somewhat on performance, however, so the MySpace-Facebook war will still be of interest to DeWolfe and Anderson.
