2007: $12 BILLION This was the figure passed around in 2007 when Murdoch attempted to merge MySpace with Yahoo.

OCTOBER 2007: $65 BILLION When Facebook really started to take off in late 2007 and analysts and investors were valuing the social network at $15 billion, David Bank at RBC Capital Markets was so frustrated that he made comparisons to other networks to show just how ridiculous everyone was being. "Applying the same $357 per-subscriber valuation that $15 billion implies to MySpace's much larger pool of 185 million registered users would yield a valuation of $65 billion for MySpace," the Wall Street Journal reported.

JUNE 2008: $3.3 BILLION-$20 BILLION Looking at the total amount of Internet advertising in countries rather than creating an algorithm that takes into account a social network's pageviews and unique visitors, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch created a new method of determining valuation in mid-2008. His model argued that MySpace should be priced at somewhere between $3.3 billion and $20 billion depending on how much value you place on each individual user.

FEBRUARY 2010: $500 MILLION-$1.2 BILLION After hearing word that Murdoch might consider selling MySpace, Business Insider's Henry Blodget dug into the details. "A glance at the financials -- shrinking revenue, losses, declining market share, loss of mojo and market leadership -- would suggest that the company might be worth 1x-2x revenue -- on the assumption that MySpace could cut costs radically and make a bit of money in the next few years," Blodget wrote. "That would put the valuation at about $500 million to $1.2 billion -- with the lower end being LESS than Rupert paid for it, and the upper end being twice what he paid for it (hardly the steal of a century).

JANUARY 2011: $1 BILLION In early 2011, Trefis took a close look at MySpace's financial data. After seeing that the social network planned to reduce its workforce by half and reconfigure its strategy, it was decided that the company, though it could never catch up to Facebook, was worth $1 billion. The most interesting detail about this valuation is that Trefis, in its analysis, seems to feat that it might be undervaluing MySpace. "The strategy also involves leveraging the user database of competitors, like Facebook," Trefis noted. "This could be a significant move for the site as it would alleviate direct competition with Facebook. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

APRIL 2011: $100 MILLION By the end of April, Murdoch was tired of pumping money into his failing social network and rumors started to spread that he was looking for a buyer at a $100 million price point. At this point, MySpace was losing millions of users every month and News Corp. could do nothing to stop the bleeding. By the beginning of 2011, Facebook has surpassed the 500 million member mark and MySpace was down to about 63 million.

Image: MySpace.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.