Rupert Murdoch Moving on the Web
Rupert Murdoch, who warned a bunch of U.S. editors a few months ago that ignoring the Internet would be a strategic disaster, has backed up his tough talk by acquiring Intermix Media for $580-million. It's a bold and aggressive move to capture part of the booming online advertising market as Intermix operates 30 Web sites and 35 e-mail newsletters. The star within Intermix's portfolio is Myspace.com, a fast-growing social networking site that likes to describe itself as a “lifestyle portal”. In May, Myspace.com was the 38th most popular Web site in the U.S. with 15.5 million unique visitors. Intermix is also notorious for settling a spyware lawsuit after it was caught the attention of U.S. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. As Silicon Valley This Morning succinctly put it: Rupert Murdoch “get it” - the “it” being the Internet and how it is changing the media industry.
