News Corp to Purchase Photobucket

DJCacophony writes "Reuters is reporting that Newscorp, having already purchased Myspace, is purchasing the image hosting site Photobucket for between 250 and 300 million dollars. The story details how Photobucket and Myspace, which have previously had disputes over advertising on each others' sites, will now be integrated with each other. The deal is still very much on the table, apparently, and may yet fall through. 'While hardly known outside the youthful world of social network sites, Photobucket has become wildly popular with users for providing free, online storage tools for multimedia self-expression, from photos to videos to digital slideshows. Site builders turn to it for images to decorate their sites. The four-year-old startup, based in Palo Alto, California, has signed up 41 million registered users, up from 32 million at the end of last year and 2 million in 2004. It now hosts nearly 2.8 billion images on the site.'"

Comments

Buying their way in?

[HalifaxRage]

The funny thing about big corporations buying up successful websites, they never seem to be "as good" as before, and they just drive entrepreneurs to create the next "fad". Soon we'll be left with billion-dollar websites that don;t *do* anything.

Re:Buying their way in?

[Ngarrang]

Yes, buying in. Companies have been doing it for ages. Sometimes, it is cheaper to buy than build your own. It seems like this activity is expected in day and age of dot-coms. Investors are looking for these big buy-outs. Why did Google go public? Because their initial investors were pushing for it. Google was doing just fine as a private company. MySQL is going public for the same reason.

And beyond going public, getting bought is a huge pay day for those stock holders (or just the initial investors if the company is still private).

I feel sorry the employees at these companies, though. After this purchase, Photobucket may "reorganize to make its operation more efficient."

Re:Buying their way in?

[neoform]

What do you mean? Hotmail is totally as good if not better than when they were bought out.. ..

Ahahahahahahaha, man I needed a good laugh this morning..

Goodbye, Photobucket

[daeg]

Goodbye, Photobucket. We had some good times, shared some good pictures, but we're moving in two separate directions. You, to a mega corporation with draconian views on privacy in pursuit of only the next dollar, and me, to hell in a handbasket for the photos we shared. You can keep the ring. It's not real, it's just some piece of glass I found on the sidewalk.

Re:Goodbye, Photobucket

[Joebert]

You can keep the ring. It's not real, it's just some piece of glass I found on the sidewalk.

They know, someone uploaded a photo of you picking it up.

Forgetfullness

[Joebert]

has signed up 41 million registered users, up from 32 million at the end of last year

Ok, that's a little hard to believe, there's no way 9 million people forgot their passwords last year.