Rupert: MySpace Worth $6 Billion

In an investors meeting in Australia yesterday, Rupert Murdoch said that MySpace could now be sold for $6 billion — about a 10x return on the original $580 million that News Corp. paid for it.
In other news, one of the many MySpace alternatives, Facebook, is rumored to be in talks with IAC — or at least Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) and Jason Rapp (IAC SVP of M&A) were seen mingling together at the Foursquare conference in NY. Facebook has been in acquisition talks with Yahoo in the past, but either the price was too much or acquisition activity halted due to poor stock performance.

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YouTube against TechCrunch

YouTube Sent TechCrunch A Cease & Desist!

"Buried in my email this evening I found a cease and desist letter from an attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, representing their client YouTube. We’ve been accused of a number of things: violating YouTube’s Terms of Use, of “tortious interference of a business relationship, and in fact, many business relationships,” of committing an “unfair business practice,” and “false advertising.” The attorney goes on to demand that we cease and desist in from engaging in these various actions or face legal remedies."

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StumbleUpon Wants to Sell for $50 Million

Two sources have confirmed that the rapidly growing StumbleUpon recently approached at least one large Internet company to be acquired. The asking price was $50 million.

The deal doesn’t appear to have been widely shopped - one potential acquiror said that they met with the company recently, but only to explore possible business development deals, and that an acquisition was not discussed. I spoke briefly with StumbleUpon CEO Garret Camp this afternoon but he refused to comment, saying “we do not comment on rumors.” Fair enough.
The real story may be a disconnect between the company’s executives and investors.

StumbleUpon has only raised a single seed round of financing - $1.5 million - and angel investors often informally shop a company, with or without the company’s permission, in the hope of an early cash out.

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