Way back in 2006, MySpace and Google signed a three-year deal that was supposed to have the search giant become the social network’s exclusive search provider in exchange for $900 million. Now, unfortunately for MySpace, around $100 million of that amount isn’t going to change hands.
The amount of money Google was supposed to pay MySpace was in part dependent on traffic levels, and it’s no secret that those are in iffy shape. As a result, News Corp. execs admitted to analysts yesterday, a significant amount of cash is going to stay with Google.
Rupert Murdoch said, “It’s quite simple. We’ve not been making our minimum guarantees so our search revenue will not be what our revenue was.”
Still, it’s worth noting that Murdoch didn’t appear to be losing sleep over the development. In fact, he wasn’t even keeping close tabs on it. Staci D. Kramer reported, “When I asked during the press part of the call how far short of the $900 million the deal would run, Murdoch at first guessed it would come in as much as $300 million short but other News Corp. execs on the call tried to reign that in, saying more like $100 million or maybe 10 percent, which would be $90 million.”
It doesn’t look like this represents as big a blow to MySpace as one might expect, then, which may mean its other revenue sources are proving more than productive.
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