News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has admitted to “mistakes” with MySpace, after the division which houses the social network posted a loss of $150 million.
News Corp. earned $839 million in the fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31, while revenue grew 19% to $8.8 billion. Operating income was up 55% percent to $1.25 billion from $810 million a year earlier.
The performance of “Avatar” at the box office helped the company’s filmed entertainment division post strong results. But its ‘other’ segment, which includes MySpace, lost $150 million compared with an $88 million loss in the prior year quarter.
“We’ve got to admit that, in the last three or four years, we made some big mistakes,” Murdoch reportedly said during an earnings call.
News Corp. president and COO Chase Carey added that MySpace is “a work in progress.”
CEO Owen Van Natta stepped down in February after just eight months at MySpace.
Murdoch said on the earnings call that the service was being turned around by new management.
“We’ve got fine new management now, they’ve started to introducing new features,” Murdoch said. “There’ll be a lot of changes coming through the summer. The early indications – and they’re only early indications – are we’re getting more visitors and they’re staying longer. When that gets more substantial, we’ll get more advertising.”
The company has appointed Manu Rekhi, a former Google product manager, as GM of MySpace Games. Facebook has benefited from games, which draw people to the site and keep them online for longer compared to MySpace.
