May 8, 2007 – Social network website MySpace, under parent company News Corporation, has signed a preliminary deal to acquire the popular online photo-sharing website Photobucket, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Photobucket acquisition is worth a reported $250 million.
With 41 million registered users, Photobucket is one of the largest online photo sharing sites on the Web, according to the Photobucket website. The free site allows users to upload photos and videos and embed them in over 300,000 sites, including social networks Facebook, Xanga, Friendster, and Blogger, with a heavy emphasis on MySpace integration. Roughly 60 percent of Photobucket’s traffic is generated from MySpace, according to a Reuters report today.
The announcement of the News Corp./Photobucket deal comes about a month after MySpace pulled from its site Photobucket videos because they contained advertisements. Photobucket publicly denounced MySpace for limiting freedom of expression.
