Time Inc buys what is left of MySpace for its user data

Time Inc has acquired what is left of social media pioneer MySpace in a move designed to hoover up user data to help it target digital ads more effectively.

The publisher of magazines including Time, People and in the UK, NME and Ideal Home announced in a statement it had acquired Viant, a group of companies that includes advertising network Specific Media, which purchased MySpace for $35m in 2011.

Time chief executive and chairman Joe Ripp described the deal as a “game changer”.

He said: “Marketers are selecting media partners that have either data-driven capabilities or premium content; we will be able to deliver both in a single platform, and will stand apart from those that offer just one or the other.”

MySpace was one of the first wave of social networks to emerge at the start of the century. It was acquired in 2005 by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for $580m and peaked in December 2008 with 75.9 million monthly unique visitors.

However, by that point the site had already been overtaken by Facebook, which offered a simpler experience, less cluttered by advertising.

Though MySpace is a shadow of its former self, Viant claims to have data from 1 billion registered users. Time and Viant say they plan to combine that data with its own subscriber information, providing it with a pool of data which it claims “rivals industry leaders Facebook and Google”.

Viant chief executive Tim Vanderhook said: “The combination of Time Inc. and Viant is all about the marriage of first party data and premium content.”

Time separately on Thursday reported better than expected revenues of $877m, down 2%, for the three months ending December 31. Digital advertising was up 17.2% to $102m but was not enough to offset a 6.6% fall in print and other advertising to $382m.

The company, which spun off from TV and cable business Time Warner in 2014, is trying to cope with declining print circulations and advertising revenue while building an online ad business with an emphasis on video.