In Part I, we looked at why the Facebook vs. MySpace comparisons were off. We concluded by saying that the mere comparison was moot because one is a privately held tech company, and the other is a unit of a media empire, which prompted us to ask if News Corp. was planning something bold.

Learning that News Corp.’s Chairman Rupert Murdoch earlier this year tried to boldly go where few have gone before by trading MySpace for 25% of Yahoo! (which was even ballsier than his unsolicited $5B offer for Dow Jones, frankly) and yesterday hearing Mr. Chernin mention that “sure, Facebook is worth $15B, but we’re worth more,” I think the case can be made that News Corp. is planning something bold:

- either a spin-off of MySpace in an IPO to actualize a Gargantuan capital gain and leverage proceeds to make more investments and mainly, acquisitions. After all, in the short to mid term, the value of MySpace is largely in the capital gain, and not the income component. Besides, no one said News Corp. won’t hold on to a large stake post-IPO.

- entire spin off of Fox Interactive Media where News Corp. retains ownership but use proceeds of IPO to make more acquisitions.

- sale of IGN, which has done well if you don’t consistently benchmark it to a social phenomenon, MySpace. I’ve also long, long maintained that IGN needs no help with marketers (though MySpace did) and given all of its assets - particularly in digital distribution and in-game advertising - would be worth more outside, than inside a media company.

News Corp. just bought Dow Jones but it is looking for an acceleration to the Web, especially with today’s report than Q1 and Q2 ad spending in the US crossed $10B.

News Corp. is worth $70B but it has admitted that it will sell some of DJ’s more far flung assets to reduce the debt load required to scoop up the venerable publisher of Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

Maybe one of these scenarios makes sense? Or, maybe I’m crazy? Both perhaps…

• Digg this Blog
• Share on Facebook
• WatchMojo on Twitter
• WatchMojo on YouTube
• Add to Favorites
• WatchMojo Newsletter