UPDATED: Now With More Crap!
FIM Sells Off Non MySpace Assets.
Fox Interactive Media (FIM) has sold most of the remaining, non-MySpace assets of Intermix Network LLC to Demand Media. These assets weren’t vital to our long-term plan and selling them to an interested third party made the most sense from both a strategic and financial perspective.”
Least shocking move ever.
Having sat through a lot of bullshit pep rallies over there, where we were told how all of the pieces were going to come together, and that it “wasn’t all about MySpace”, makes me want to see some of these IMIX pieces that FIM is dumping, come back and be stronger than ever.
My old group at Focalex, may be the most under-rated component that is lost in the shuffle.
Here is the best way to explain this whole mess.
Pretend you are a bastard kid, living (along with 3 or 4 of your bastard siblings) in a modest home, with your cute, but not necessarily super hot single mom. Things are going well, mom treats you ok, and life is generally fine.
One day, mom decides to get breast implants…and then she sheds 10 pounds…and then she starts dressing super hot. In a short span of time, mom has gone from middle of the pack, to the hottest piece of tail on the PTA. Pretty soon, lots of old rich guys are all over mom’s shit.
After some courtships and some wooing, mom hooks up with one of these old rich dudes, and you are cautiously optimistic. You see big potential here…this guy is loaded…good things on the horizon…but you are wary that he really likes you and your siblings. Surely he is just all about mom, and you little brats are just an inconvenience.
But to his credit, whenever you doubt that he loves you, he quickly assures you that you are “his kids now” and promises that he is going to take care of you, and nurture you into very successful adults. This is exciting and you start to see the possibilities. Afterall, you now have rich dude’s deep pockets to support you. The sky is the limit. Life has gone from good to great. Go mom.
A year or so passes, and things don’t really seem to be happening like you’d hoped. You wonder when things are going to start and get good. And to top it off, anytime you want to borrow $20, rich dude blows you off…meanwhile, mom is running around with his Amex black, burning up the mall.
You begin to get skeptical that things are ever going to change, and you start to resent rich dude. Just as you are beginning to face the facts that he was bullshitting you all along (while still holding out a shred of hope that he really does care about you guys), mom tells you that rich dude actually does think you are a worthless pain in the ass, and that they both decided to send you packing. You are moving in with dad again.
Sorry, and good luck!
Now I suppose that doesn’t really explain it all that well, but it was the best long-winded, and non-sensical analogy that I could come up with to help relate this situation to real life.
Not to be lost in all of this nonsense is what a brilliant move this is for FIM. At $580MM, FIM’s purchase of MySpace was already considered the steal of the century. Now (though the terms are not disclosed), let’s assume that Demand Media is taking the non-MySpace pieces back at someplace between $50-$100 million…or even far less, at $25mm or so (that number in my eyes really depends on whether or not Alena is included here – and I think it is, as it was always a solid revenue generator for IMIX), this reduces not only the $580mm price tag of the initial deal, giving FIM an even bigger bargain, but it relieves them of managing the monster that is and was known as Intermix.
This has always been an interesting soap opera, and it just keeps rolling on and on and on.
