No Twitter, please: Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch said his News Corp. has no plans to sell MySpace, the once-proud, now-struggling
social networking platform it owns, and has no interest in buying Twitter, the microblogging upstart experiencing, by some estimations, the best growth of any social
networking platform.
Murdoch made the remarks about Twitter and MySpace at Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley media and technology conference in Idaho Thursday where, according to Reuters, media barons like Murdoch and IAC boss Barry Diller weren't exactly a-twitter on the who-will-buy-Twitter excitement.
Murdoch urged other potential Twitter dance partners to "be careful of investing here," suggesting that because Twitter's executives haven't yet been able to monetize its platform -- that is, turn Twitter into a money-making operation with real returns -- it's a shaky investment at best with no guarantee of sustainability.
According to Reuters, Murdoch answered "no" when asked if he would consider buying Twitter, and said "hell no" when asked if News Corp. would part ways with MySpace.
Murdoch and News Corp. bought MySpace back in 2005 for $580 million, but the popularity of the site has since waned, ceding territory to flashier rivals like Facebook. According to Internet researcher ComScore, Facebook overtook MySpace in terms of total unique users in the U.S. -- something it had already done in the rest of the world -- in June.
The subject of who's going to buy Twitter is an on-again, off-again hot topic with seemingly no end to speculation. Back in May, Apple's name surfaced as a potential Twitter buyer, and that rumor came only a month after some reports suggested a potential Twitter buy by Google was all but a done deal.
Even Facebook itself once got all doe-eyed for Twitter, offering $500 million to acquire Twitter last November only to see its offer turned down.
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