MySpace Buys Photobucket



Galactic Master of the Universe Rupert Murdoch's double-barelled stranglehold over the constantly evolving digital cosmos was strengthened mightily as the whispered-about MySpace-Photobucket deal went through for a crisp $250 million. As first reported by ValleyWag, " Photobucket, and its bankers Lehman Brothers, were looking for at least $300m." Game, set and match: Rupert Murdoch. Paidcontent also noted, billionaire Barry Diller's "IAC was in the bidding till the last moment, say our sources, but the pricing was too aggressive for anyone but MySpace/Fox." Kristina Knight of Bizreport writes:

"PhotoBucket serves roughly 3 billion photos and videos every day for 41 million members. About 85,000 new members sign up each day, that is about 40% of all photo-sharing activities. In comparison, Yahoo and Flickr together account for only about 10% of all photo/video sharing activities.

"Though it hosts pics and vids free of charge, PhotoBucket is a cash cow. In addition to a $25/year subscription fee, it makes money by displaying ads while users wait for photos and videos to upload to the site. PhotoBucket brought in about $6.3 million in revenue in 2006. As more advertisers and users sign on, they are expecting revenue to jump to $25 million in 2007.

"Another interesting fact is that users are staying on-site. In December 2006, the average users viewed 13+ pages each visit. As publishers begin to pay more attention to the engagement level of users (how many pages are viewed, how long a user stays on-site), these numbers become even more important."

And at a $50 million discount. (Bizreport)