IP Democracy: How Does Fox Interactive Top Its First 18 Months?

The Mercury News has this piece on Fox Interactive, the 18 month-old Internet and interactive media arm of News Corp., which suggests that after a stellar beginning, reality is setting in at the hot company.

First, COO Mark Jung, who came on board with News Corp.’s purchase of IGN Entertainment, is leaving, with CEO Ross Levinsohn taking over Jung’s duties. Secondly, Fox Interactive’s highest profile property, MySpace, is experiencing cooling growth.

But, as Levinsohn points out, it’s not possible for any business to grow at the rate of 60 million new users every few years. MySpace, however, has room to grow internationally — its UK site now has six million users after only a few months.

More acquisitions could be in the cards to keep Fox Interactive’s momentum going. One deal that slipped away from News Corp. is YouTube, a lost opportunity that still clearly rankles Levinsohn.

“I don’t think we would have spent $1.6 billion to acquire YouTube,” he said. But, he added, “If you’re going to run a (sale) process of one of the hottest companies on the Internet, you should do that openly. There’s no advantage to shareholders to do these things in private. You don’t necessarily get the best value in the market. If it were out being shopped, maybe it could have sold for $2 billion.”

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 3, 2006 11:59 AM to IP Democracy