Hogan Lovells leads as News Corp cuts MySpace losses with $35m sell-off
Hogan Lovells has advised News Corporation on its $35m (£22m) sale of MySpace, six years after the media giant purchased the social networking site for $580m (£362m), reports The Am Law Daily. The acquisition by targeted advertising company Specific Media will see most of MySpace's 400 employees dismissed following the change in ownership, according to an email sent out on Wednesday (29 June) by MySpace CEO Mike Jones which confirmed the deal.
June 30, 2011 at 08:37 AM
2 minute read
Hogan Lovells has advised News Corporation on its $35m (£22m) sale of MySpace, six years after the media giant purchased the social networking site for $580m (£362m), reports The Am Law Daily.
The acquisition by targeted advertising company Specific Media will see most of MySpace's 400 employees dismissed following the change in ownership, according to an email sent out on Wednesday (29 June) by MySpace CEO Mike Jones confirming the deal.
Hogan Lovells advised long-term client News Corp with a team led by M&A partners Alexander Johnson and Maureen Hanlon, tax partner Philip Altman, employee benefits partners Joseph Rackman and Carin Carithers, intellectual property partner Audrey Reed, and data privacy partner Lynda Marshall.
Johnson joined legacy firm Hogan & Hartson in 2005 from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, which advised News Corp on the $580m acquisition of former MySpace parent Intermix Media the same year.
Johnson said: "There was certainly a lot of interest in MySpace – it wasn't a distressed property by any means. MySpace still has tens of millions of users and is a relatively marquee brand on the internet, despite it falling out of favour relative to Facebook."
News Corp deputy general counsel Michael Bunder led an in-house team at the company working on the deal with MySpace general counsel Lin Cherry, after News Corp's long-serving general counsel Lawrence Jacobs resigned earlier this month.
Specific Media turned to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher for advice on the acquisition, with corporate partner Terrence Allen leading the firm's team. The role comes after Specific Media named former Gibson Dunn corporate associate Drew Bordages as its new general counsel earlier this year.
As part of the deal, News Corp will retain a minority stake in MySpace, a company that was once the centerpiece of its interactive media division.
Earlier this year Hogan Lovells acted for News Corp on its $674m (£421m) acquisition of TV production company Shine Group, a company founded in 2001 by Elisabeth Murdoch, the daughter of News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch.
The Am Law Daily is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.
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