Interesting read from Om Malik and Business 2.0, called Sly Fox, on Ross Levinsohn’s efforts over at News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media. Indeed, in 2 short years, the man’s gone from a criticized lieutenant in Rupert Murdoch’s fiefdom to a visionary, who now, as he puts it, has a lot of friends in Silicon Valley thanks to the $600 Million he has left in his piggy bank… and a lot of leverage with major new media companies.
Ah, the web kicks ass. In two short years, an old media company can drastically reposition itself and become relevant online. To his credit, Levinsohn admits: “we got lucky,” though he does deserve credit for snatching MySpace away from Viacom and landing IGN (also from Viacom). Which begs the question, Mr. Redstone, if you folks need any help with online strategy, M&A targets and closing deals, let us know Sir.
This also begs the question: here’s a 2,900-word article on FIM in Business 2.0 and MySpace gets all of the ink, with not a single mention of my old employer, IGN. That’s odd. Mr. Malik is a much respected writer with a keen eye, and he is certainly right in saying that FIM is best positioned with cornering the 18-34 and 18-24 markets, but the credit there goes to IGN, and not MySpace in my humble opinion. (Great, there goes a Malik-written piece on WatchMojo.com, forever).
An interesting stat to note:
Handful of acquisitions in the new media space: $1.2 billion
Rise in Market Capitalization of Acquiring Company: $1 billion
Becoming a media darling amongst New and Old Media Firms: Priceless
Oh… how I would love to be a pebble in that ocean. All right, maybe not…
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