Myspace still exists? Yes, and now Time Inc. owns it

A Time Inc. spokesperson said that “Myspace is intrinsic to Viant’s people-based advertising platform”, TechCrunch reports.

“This acquisition is game changing for us”, Time Inc. chairman and CEO Joe Ripp, said in a statement.

Naturally, the MySpace piece of deal generates attention because it is symbolic of the strengths of “legacy media” and the sometimes fleeting nature of digital media. Viant, formerly known as Interactive Media Holdings, paid only $35 million for the social-media site. It had tens of millions of registered users and at the time was symbolic of the rise of new kinds of media. Viant owns several ad-tech and media companies including Specific Media, Vindico, Myspace and Xumo. Believe it or not, the site still sees 50 million visitors every month. Acquiring Viant will dramatically strengthen the Time Inc. value proposition in the industry by giving marketers sophisticated targeting and measurement capabilities.

“MySpace is intrinsic to Viant’s people-based advertising platform”, a spokesperson tells me.

“We came at Time Inc. with a very careful script that we laid out on the road show when we first with public of saying that we first had to go after our costs”, Ripp said on the conference call. While not all of those people may have kept the same email address from their MySpace days, it still has an enviable treasure trove of first-party data.

Revenues beat consensus but fell 2%, dampened slightly by the strong dollar (revenues declined 1% ex-currency).

Time Inc., which reported an $881 million loss past year, will be able to take advantage of Viant’s data platform to target advertising.

No price was disclosed for the acquisition, but the company’s cash balance will be down around $85 million in the next quarter because of acquisitions. They also provide content marketing, targeted local print and digital advertising programs, branded book publishing and marketing and support services, including subscription sales services for magazines and other products, retail distribution and marketing services and customer service and fulfillment services, for ourselves and third-party clients, including other magazine publishers.