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MySpace bids expected this week

Six line up for knackered social network

Rupert Murdoch is hoping for bids this week for his undead social network MySpace.

News Corp has been trying to get shot of the site, or work out what to do with it since soon after buying it.

The media giant bought the social networking and music site at the height of its popularity as part of the takeover of Intermix in 2005. Murdoch paid $580m for the company. Since then its users and revenues have shrunk.

There are six possible bidders for the unsocial site, according to the Wall Street Journal.

These include three private equity firms - Thomas H Lee Partners, Redscout Ventures and Criterion Capital Partners LLC. Other possible bidders include a Chinese tech firm and music video site Veevo, but the WSJ reckons Veevo is less interested now.

Criterion of course bought Bebo, for a small fraction of the $850m which AOL paid for the British teensite. The price paid for Bebo was not released but it was described as "an exceptionally uninspiring number" with almost total "value destruction".

MySpace was all but absent from News Corp's latest earnings announcement, except for getting the blame for larger losses at the Digital Media Group. ®

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