Funny Story

So a few years ago Newscorp bought this up and coming website called Myspace. They paid 580 million dollars for it. The fat-cats all lol’d at the amazing bargain they had received.

Myspace was an internet juggernaut. No site on the intertubes had ever grown that quickly. It had millions of users in a key demographic. It combined all forms of internet media, making the potential for marketing to this demographic enormous. The fat-cats were pleased.

Then one day a small curly headed boy came along. He had an idea.

The fat-cats laughed at this curly headed boy. For they were old and wise and knew the ways of business. They did not fear his little book of faces.

The curly headed boy’s site launched and people were attracted to it’s clean interface. It was programmed by real life computer nerds instead of the fleet of monkeys Myspace had hired. It worked quickly and efficiently and the people were pleased. Even the people who typed every email, every blog post, every e-correspondence in comic sans, decided that this book of faces was the place to be.

The fat-cats panicked. They fired the monkeys and hired their own nerds to redo the interface. But it was too late. Myspace was a ghost town and all was lost. The fat-cats decided that their only option left was to try and sell Myspace to some schmuck who didn’t know better. They put it on the market for half of what they paid. Potential buyers laughed and laughed.

The fat-cats could not find a schmuck to buy their site. No one was gullible enough to pay their price. They kept slashing the price. Sweetening the pot. They did everything they could to make this purchase as attractive as possible.

No one would buy what they were selling. The fat-cats were out of options. An intern told them that he sold his futon on something called “craigslist” and it worked out okay for him. So the fat-cats told him to make them a listing for their worthless website.

Luckily, the fat-cat owner of a company called Specific Media was perusing craigslist at the time. He was looking for a present for his teenage step-daughter that he didn’t really care for that much. He replied to the ad and offered Newscorp 1/17th the price they had originally paid for it. A slap in the face really. The ultimate insult to a business man. A misdeed so inscrutable that… wait… the fat-cat wishes to respond.

Oh. Umm. Alright then. I guess they felt it was a fair offer. It’s official then. MySpace has been sold for 35 million dollars and all the glitter graphics Specific Media can stand.

Provided they keep them classy.