According to a new book on MySpace, four years ago, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe met with Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg and the pair talked merger. Eventually Mark asked Chris if MySpace wanted to buy Facebook for $75 million.

Chris said no.

By Fall of 2005 -- after a summer that saw News Corp pay $580 million for MySpace -- Chris and Mark met again. This time Mark put the price tag at $750 million.

Chris said no, again.

In June 2007, Chris and MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson asked News Corp for two-year, $50 million contract.

In Fall 2007, Microsoft bought 1.6% of Facebook for $240 million -- a $15 billion valuation that's since deflated to somewhere around $4 billion.

Last week, Comscore confirmed that Facebook draws twice as much traffic as MySpace.

Oops.

Of course, given the slow pace of innovation at MySpace since its acquisition by News Corp, its entirely possible Facebook would never have become the cultural touchstone it is today under Chris and Tom's leadership instead of Mark's.

But then, we'll never know, will we?

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