Intermix Sells the House to Fox

Owner of popular social networking site MySpace.com to become a part of News Corporation's Fox Interactive Media division in $580 million deal.

Fox, through their recently formed Fox Interactive Unit, is planning to beam into more people’s computers shortly through its planned acquisition of online media company Intermix. At the top of Intermix’s crown of more than 30 sites is MySpace.com, a leading social networking site.

News Corporation, the parent company of Fox, said in a press release that the Intermix acquisition will effectively double the web traffic the company sees to more than 45 million unique monthly users. The MySpace.com site in particular is a huge boost for Fox as data from comScore Media Matrix shows it to be the fifth ranked web domain in terms of page views. MySpace.com integrates web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, music downloads, user forums and other features into a community based structure.

One other popular site on the Intermix network is gaming and entertainment related grab.com which, like MySpace.com, integrates social networking. The purchase price of Intermix is approximately $580 million.

“Intermix is an important acquisition for News Corp., instantly doubling the number of visitors to our sites and providing an ideal foundation on which to meaningfully increase our internet presence,” said News Corporation’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rupert Murdoch. “Intermix’s brands, such as MySpace.com, are some of the web’s hottest properties and resonate with the same audiences that are most attracted to Fox’s news, sports and entertainment offerings. We see a great opportunity to combine the popularity of Intermix’s sites, particularly MySpace, with our existing online assets to provide a richer experience for today’s internet users.”