Not everyone was pessimistic about Myspace, writes Dan Primack over at Term Sheet. At least one VC tried hard to wrest control of the company back from News Corp before the media dinosaur could drive it into the ground: redpoint ventures partner Geoff Yang, who tripled his money by investing in Myspace months before the acquisition.
Mr. Yang, who previously invested in Excite, Ask.com and TiVo, currently has investments in Formspring, Scribd, and the gaming site Machinima.com. Mr. Yang wanted to spin Myspace out of News Corp, allowing the parent company to retain some stake, and turn it into a $1 billion company–sort of like the Prehype model. For whatever reasons, News Corp said no, opting instead to slash costs and chase after the music market in an attempt to make the social network profitable.
The tale of woe reminds us of News Corp’s current experiment with new technology it doesn’t fully understand at the height of said technology’s hype: The Daily–the world’s first iPad-only newspaper!–which has not been considered a success and is currently bleeding talent. Any interest in tablet publishing, Mr. Yang?
