Amazon Pushes Hard to Kill a California Sales Tax

State Senator Loni Hancock of California, center, and other lawmakers are using a rare tactic to stop Amazon’s efforts toward a voter referendum on sales taxes.

Amazon.com, the Seattle-based retailer that is the state’s chief target, is fighting back with all the resources of a company whose stock market valuation is nearly $100 billion. In an unusual move that opponents say is a violation of the state constitution, Amazon is taking directly to voters its argument that it should not be required to collect sales tax.

Infuriated state lawmakers are responding with what some observers are calling “the nuclear option”: writing new legislation that goes after Amazon and other online retailers under an “urgency” clause. If they can get the new measure passed by a two-thirds vote before the end of the legislative session on Friday, it will trump Amazon’s efforts toward a voter referendum.

To sway a few legislators, Amazon is making a counterproposal: if California drops the tax issue for a few years, the retailer says it will build two warehouses in the state and hire 7,000 workers. In a state with 12 percent unemployment, that might seem an attractive offer.

“This is a game of chess with ultimately billions of tax revenues at stake across the country and strong competing values on either side,” said Tracy Westen, chief executive of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles research group. “High drama for policy wonks.”

At its heart, the standoff between Amazon and California is simple: the state passed a law at the beginning of the summer requiring online retailers with a physical presence in the state to collect sales taxes. Amazon denies that its subsidiaries in the state, which include a unit that designed the Kindle, constitute such a presence.

The stakes go far beyond the $200 million the state is hoping to get from Amazon and other online retailers, money it has already put into its new budget. (Local communities stand to reap an additional $100 million.) Amazon fears that a defeat in California will sway legislators across the country, and that it will lose a critical pricing advantage. It is fighting a similar measure in New York in the courts.

Opposing Amazon are traditional retailers as big as Wal-Mart and as small as the neighborhood bookstore — the few that are left. “Amazon is killing our business in bricks-and-mortar stores,” said Bill Dombrowski, head of the California Retailers Association, which was the driving force behind the original law.

Amazon easily collected the half-million signatures necessary to put the issue on ballots next June. Since people will in essence be voting on whether to pay an additional 8 or 9 percent when they buy online, Amazon could easily triumph among voters who are watching their wallets. Democrats in the Legislature responded with an urgency bill, a rare tactic used only a few times a year.

“We’re not doing this lightly,” said State Senator Loni Hancock, a Berkeley Democrat. “But it seems like Amazon doesn’t really care about the State of California or the people whose lives are affected by whether or not we have enough money for schools and roads and to keep the libraries and parks open.”

Any Californian who buys a book or a DVD player from Amazon is supposed to pay a use tax when filing state taxes. In practice, however, few do. For years, the issue has been simmering. Then came the withering recession, and the economic calculus changed.

In the two months since the law took effect, Amazon has declined to start collecting sales tax in California. Once it submits the signatures for the referendum and they are verified, the law will be suspended until the vote.

Senator Hancock and other Democrats say they have stopped shopping at Amazon. “This is getting pretty acrimonious,” said the California treasurer, Bill Lockyer, who said he was also boycotting the retailer. “It’s snarly.”

A Hacker Tells All

Kevin Mitnick after his arrest in 1995.

While he excelled at infiltrating computer systems from a keyboard and had a sharp memory for numbers, “Ghost in the Wires” (written with William L. Simon) really showcases another of Mitnick’s skills: social engineering, or what he describes as “the casual or calculated manipulation of people to influence them to do things they would not ordinarily do.” By doing his research and impersonating authority figures over the phone or by e-mail, Mitnick found he could persuade just about anybody — programmers, technicians, even the nice lady at the Social Security Administration — to give him the things he wanted, like passwords, computer chips and personal information about F.B.I. informants on his tail. “People, as I had learned at a very young age, are just too trusting,” he writes.

It’s this element to his story that makes “Ghost in the Wires” read like a contemporary über-geeky thriller. Many of today’s computer viruses and identity-­theft scams — and even the recent phone-­hacking scandals of certain newspapers — depend on social engineering mixed with a misuse of technology to dupe the unsuspecting. In that regard, Mitnick’s memoir also serves as a wake-up call for anyone trying to keep personal information private. (Out of prison since 2000, Mitnick now works as a security ­consultant.)

Kevin Mitnick grew up as an only child of divorced parents, moving frequently in the Los Angeles area. He was something of a loner, and his early pursuits included studying magic tricks and ham radio. When he was 12, the revelation that he could ride the local bus system free with a $15 punch and books of half-used blank transfer tickets fished out of a Dumpster behind the bus depot gave him a sense of what he could do (legal or otherwise) if he put his mind to it. Even if one is unfamiliar with Mitnick’s life story, it’s kind of obvious where he’s heading here, and it’s far beyond the bus routes around San Bernardino County.

In high school, Mitnick developed an obsession with the inner workings of the telephone company’s switches and circuits, a hobby known as “phone phreaking” (and one that was shared by the future Apple founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, in their own formative years).

By the time he was 17, in 1981, Mitnick was happily spending his time on things like persuading a Pacific Telephone employee to give him Lucille Ball’s home number and burrowing into different corporate computer systems. It was also at the age of 17 that he had his first run-in with the authorities for his activities. Thus began a nearly 20-year cat-and-mouse game with law enforcement that makes up much of the book.

Driven by curiosity and compulsion (“There’s always something that’s more challenging and fun to hack”), Mitnick spent most of his young adulthood pilfering proprietary code from technology companies like Sun Microsystems and Novell, partly so he could look for bugs and security holes to use to his advantage, and partly for the thrill of the hunt. He also spent plenty of time making free calls on his hacked cellphone and going to the gym. As the authorities began to close in on him in 1992, he created several false identities, and went on the run until he was finally nailed in February 1995.

When not recounting his clever exploits, Mitnick devotes chunks of the book to defiantly rebutting myths that became attached to him — for example, that he had hacked into government computer systems. (He does, however, admit to eavesdropping on the National Security Agency’s telephone calls.)

With its caper ’n’ chase pacing, “Ghost in the Wires” is fairly entertaining, although the prose can veer into pulpy melodrama: “I had to move now. I had to get a new identity now. I had to get the hell out of my apartment now!”

Like many memoirists, Mitnick clearly relishes the chance to have his say all these years later. He mocks some of the more incredible accusations leveled at him by the authorities: that he had repeatedly turned off the phone service of the actress Kristy McNichol, and that he could “whistle into a telephone and launch a nuclear missile from Norad.” (Mitnick surmises that the federal prosecutor who made the latter claim probably mixed him up with Matthew Broderick’s youthful computer enthusiast in the 1983 cold-war thriller “WarGames.”)

Mitnick’s sense of humor is evident as he recounts his adventures. When his ingenious combination of a radio scanner and software alerted him to F.B.I. agents’ cellphones in the area, he cheekily had a box of doughnuts waiting for them when they raided his apartment.

For those interested in computer history, “Ghost in the Wires” is a nostalgia trip to the quaint old days before hacking (and hackers) turned so malicious and financially motivated. Unlike computer criminals today, Mitnick ignored the credit card numbers he stumbled across in his pursuit of code. He writes: “Anyone who loves to play chess knows that it’s enough to defeat your opponent. You don’t have to loot his kingdom or seize his assets to make it worthwhile.” He summed up his personal motive to the former Wall Street trader Ivan Boesky when they were both in prison: “I didn’t do it for the money; I did it for the ­entertainment.”

Clear Channel swipes at Pandora with iheart revamp (AP)

Los Angeles – radio station giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. will take a swipe at online music service Pandora with a restructuring of its iheartradio program that mimics the Pandora personalized audio experience, but not imitating the start needs to make a profit.

The operator of over 850 radio stations across the country is to kick out the new service with a star-studded two-day concert in Las Vegas on September 23 and 24 acts, including Bon Jovi, Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Lopez.

Bob Pittman, president of media and entertainment platforms for Clear Channel Communications Inc., said the success of Pandora Media, Inc. shows that people want to stream songs to their personal tastes on mobile devices.

Pittman said iheartradio will assume the function of a gradual re-launch in the coming months.

Pandora went with an initial public offering of shares to the public last month, but the share price has seen itself as euphoria among Internet investors, cut gave way to reality, which grew ad revenue is not fast enough to royalties it pays to play music to cover to cover. Pandora's shares closed at $ 19.27 on Friday, about 19 percent above the IPO price.

Pittman says Clear Channel, a private company, $ 5900000000 revenue last year was not necessary to make a profit when the new service will help reach audiences in different ways.

"For us it does not matter if it succeeds, more than one company," Pittman said in an interview. "We just have to be successful as a feature."

Pandora said it has about 94 million registered users and more than 30 million listeners per month.

Pittman said that Clear Channel is not far behind with around 27 million visitors per month, although this figure includes visitors to the websites of the radio station and listening iheartradio application. Clear Channel 237 million listeners compared to the traditional broadcasting company each month.

Iheartradio allows listeners to hear the power stations outside their market and that some channels that listening to certain genres. Clear Channel acquired the transmission of music playback thumb in March, and uses its technology as the basis for personalized radio function.

Pittman said the new iheartradio application will have access to 10 million numbers, millions more of Pandora, and may not use the ads for the remainder of the year. The company also offers gift packs concert promotion for listeners of building buzz around reactivation.

L.A. Noire expansion Reefer Madness fires up a new trailer (Digital Trends)

The latest downloadable content for LA Noire, a vice case on the road and we have the new trailer below to prove it. DLC called "Reefer Madness", will be released July 12 on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for 320 MS points or $ 3.99, respectively. Those who pass the Rockstar bought for $ 10 will be the case as part of the load.

The "Reefer Madness" deal between Vice Detective Cole Phelps against drug dealers pushing the vile weed known as marijuana in the streets of Los Angeles to prevent people from smoking and possibly suicide or to commit rape as the 1936 film of the same name suggests will happen, Phelps and his partner have cracked a ring of the largest in the city narcotics.

The "Reefer Madness" is the second case additional DLC for the game, and joins fire investigation is based on the time as "electroplating Nicholson," and two other cases that were originally pre-order bonus, but both can be purchased as well.

US music sales rise for first time since 2004 (AP)

LOS ANGELES – U.S. album sales of music grew over the first six months of a year ago, the first increase since 2004, thanks to increased sales of digital songs and albums.

Tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan said Wednesday that total album sales increased by almost 4 percent to 221.5 million units from 213.6 million years before.

This includes CDs and digital albums. Nielsen also has 10 individual titles sold as a single album.

The best-selling album was Adele "21" with 2.5 million albums sold, while Lady Gaga "Born This Way" came in second with 1.5 million albums, thanks to a promotion at Amazon.com, which sold the album to a greatly reduced 99 cents.

Next gen video games let players control the story (AP)

In this screen shot provided by BioWare, a scene from "Star Wars: the Old Republic," is shown. Game makers are crafting more sophisticated story lines

LOS ANGELES – Menacing alien machines descend on Earth, and amid all-out war, a soldier searches a building to find a frightened boy hiding in a vent.

“It’s OK,” says the soldier.

“Everyone’s dying,” the boy replies.

The soldier must choose: Help the boy or tell him to flee.

Though it’s full of dramatic tension and realistic animation, this isn’t a scene from the next Hollywood blockbuster. It’s actually from upcoming video game “Mass Effect 3.”

Game makers are crafting more sophisticated story lines and creating characters that evolve based on their experiences within a game. It’s an attempt to interest new customers and reverse a decline in video game sales as the maturing business fights for people’s attention in the face of new devices such as the iPad.

A new crop of games calls for players to make choices that go beyond selecting a weapon. Among other things, players are asked to make moral decisions that force their characters — and the game’s narrative — to evolve in different ways. Upcoming games such as “Bioshock Infinite” and “Star Wars: The Old Republic” tap into this vein.

These storytelling games couldn’t come at a better time. U.S. sales of gaming consoles and video games hit a peak in 2008, at $21.4 billion, according to market research firm NPD Group. Since then, however, annual sales fell 13 percent to $18.6 billion in 2010. So far in 2011, sales are flat compared with last year.

With the recent Supreme Court decision protecting violent games as free speech, it’s more appropriate than ever for games to have more of a message.

Part of the goal of involved storytelling is to keep players occupied for longer, playing out stories through to the end. Video game makers are trying to stop players from getting bored and quickly offloading games onto used game shops, which can sap sales.

The new games merge first-person shoot-em-ups with movie plotlines to develop what some in the industry are calling a new art form.

In the past, games mostly sandwiched so-called theatrical “cut scenes” between bouts of trigger-finger action. In “Grand Theft Auto IV,” for instance, players are given missions on a roughly linear progression as other hoodlums call by cellphone and recruit them to participate in crimes that will elevate the player in rank. Players can follow along or ignore the story lines in favor of other pursuits, such as discovering hidden details like the giant, chained heart inside the Statue of Liberty lookalike.

Gradually, non-action scenes are becoming more central to games and the story is the focus. “Grand Theft” was a start in that direction, with two different endings depending on player choices. The new “Star Wars” game will have about 20 different endings and a billion ways to get there.

“Photographs tell stories. Movies tell stories. Songs tell stories. Games tell stories,” said Ken Levine, creative director for Irrational Games.

Levine’s studio is poised to release “BioShock Infinite” next year. The shooting game confronts main character Booker with moral decisions — like saving a man from execution or putting down a horse — all the while roaming around an immersive floating world that resembles early 20th century America.

“My mom’s not going to connect to the story of `Mega Man 2,’” Levine said, referring to the pixelated Capcom game from the late 1980s. “But hopefully she can connect to a story like this.”

These storytelling games represent yet another way the video game business is reaching out to people who have not traditionally considered themselves “gamers.” Mobile games including “Angry Birds” and addicting social-network games such as “FarmVille” have gotten more women to play. Motion controllers from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have turned video gaming into a physical workout that appeals to young and old.

Storytelling games could appeal to those attracted to character development more than killing.

Lindsay Grace, professor of interactive media studies at Miami University, said the video game industry is trying to accomplish what Hollywood has turned into a science: entering new markets by offering a little something for everyone — a little romance, a little action, a little this and that.

“Games have started to understand this in the last four to five years, but they are later to understand that than film,” he said. “Before, it was a shooting game, and that’s what you do.”

Grace, who’s been studying video games for seven years, believes the answer is not in more big-budget shoot-em-ups, but in independent video games pushing the boundaries of entertainment.

“From indie games to more mainstream offerings, in the next decade or so we are going to be seeing a greater diversity in subject matter,” said Scott Steinberg, the chief executive of video game consulting company TechSavvy Global. “The selection of games will more closely resemble your selection of movies.”

Market tracker NPD Group doesn’t track or categorize “storytelling” games specifically. But many of the games that have had commercial success dive deep into narrative territory. “Grand Theft Auto IV” has sold 20 million units since its record-breaking April 2008 launch. “L.A. Noire” was the top-selling game in the United States in May, with an estimated 899,000 units, despite an industry downturn.

A-list actors, writers and directors are increasingly participating in the industry, lending their voices, faces and ideas to the medium.

Guillermo Del Toro, the Oscar-nominated director behind such hits as “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Hellboy,” recently cut off work on the unfinished “The Hobbit” movies in part to free himself to work on video games. One of his first new projects is with game maker THQ on a future release called “Insane.” Guillermo envisions the making of the game to take up eight to nine years of his creative life.

“We are in the infancy of people recognizing video games as art,” Del Toro said in a recent interview.

He believes game releases will become major cultural events someday, much like big-budget movies. “In order to be a storyteller in the 21st century, we urgently need to learn to tell stories through video games,” he said.

Aaron Staton, an actor from the Emmy-winning television series “Mad Men,” said he signed on to play detective Cole Phelps in the epic crime game “L.A. Noire,” to be part of the cutting-edge method of storytelling that the game explores.

Staton studied 2,200 pages of script in order to act out all the story lines that evolve from player choices. A key game mechanic is determining how the detective will react to suspects in the interrogation room. Deciding to believe or doubt them moves the story into what he describes as “its own separate reality.”

Many recent games have featured actors’ voices, but in “L.A. Noire,” their facial expressions and voices become “an important aspect of the story of the game and the game play itself,” Staton said. “So I thought that it would be exciting.”

Actions in these games are meant to have consequences that go beyond passing levels or gaining points. They unlock new, unexplored chapters, like a book that has dozens of endings, and provide lessons for the characters along the way.

A love triangle is expected to develop in “Mass Effect 3,” but only if characters created romances in the earlier two versions.

In “Star Wars: The Old Republic,” gamers can choose to play do-good Jedi Knights, evil Sith lords or six other classes of characters. Sparing an enemy’s life, for instance, will determine which direction the game heads and whether companions cooperate or betray the player later on.

Daniel Erickson, the lead writer of the “Star Wars” game, said the amount of storytelling content was unprecedented. The studio behind it, BioWare, created more than 10,000 characters to talk to and used voices from more than 1,000 actors.

The alternate paths amount to more than 60 “Star Wars” novels worth of content in a script that, if read completely, would last longer than the entire 86-episode run of the HBO television show “The Sopranos,” which would take three days without sleep.

“BioWare is a lot closer in structure to an ongoing TV series studio when it comes to the writing department than it is to a classic game design studio,” Erickson said. “It is story that drives everything.”

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York and Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

AP Source: Google among firms looking to buy Hulu (AP)

Los Angeles – Search giant Google Inc. is one of a dozen companies involved in talks to possibly buy the online video site Hulu, said a person familiar with the matter Friday. As owner of YouTube, it would be a strategic acquisition of Silicon Valley technology company that has had a rocky relationship with Hulu is Hollywood owners.

Hulu has begun presenting its financial information to many potential bidders, but it is too early to declare a pioneer, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential.

Online video service began to seek bidders early last week after an unsolicited offer prompted Hulu board to pursue other interests.

Hulu streams movies and TV shows from broadcasters NBC, Fox and NBC to personal computers, and for a monthly fee for a number of web-connected devices.The company is owned by broadcasters parent, The Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Comcast Corp., along with Providence Equity Partners. In February, said Hulu CEO Jason Spikes Hulu gets one million paying customers at the end of the year and generates nearly $ 500 million in revenue, up from $ 263,000,000 in 2010. He has said that the company is profitable.

Google's own attempts last year to launch a service, streaming web content to TVs, Google TV, was met with a blockade of the broadcaster that continues to this day. People who use personal computers can see the last show on Hulu for free with ads, but they try to access them through Google TV can not. Hulu does not allow viewers to watch their programs on mobile devices or via television, unless the user subscribes to Hulu Plus, an $ 8-A-month plan that provides access to a wider range of materials.

Even if Google were to buy Hulu has the right to continue to stream content from its current owners are not guaranteed. Broadcasters insist Mountain View, California, Google has to reach a new agreement to license the content to be used that way.

YouTube, Google also rent movies from studios like Sony, Warner Bros, Universal and Lionsgate, but not Disney, Paramount and 20th Century Fox Paramount owner Viacom Inc. is appealing a lower court's rejection of their demands for $ 1 billion that accuses YouTube to show thousands of pirated clips from their programs.

Google's interest in Hulu previously reported by the Los Angeles Times.

A Google spokesman said the company did not comment on rumors and speculation. A Hulu spokeswoman declined comment.

Talent show mulled for Timberlake’s Myspace (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Justin Timberlake for a long time manager Johnny Wright, said Friday that a talent show or some other way to develop new artists will be fundamental for the renewal of Myspace.

And the core of an idea "what emerges from a busy two weeks to manage the process that led to the former 'N Sync pop star in a new partnership with clients who need the web.

"Whether that becomes a talent or something, those are things that still have meat," said Wright, who has made since his' N Sync Timberlake. "We definitely want to bring back the industry from Myspace to see very talented people who put their faces there."

Timberlake and the new social network management will discuss its plans at a press conference on August 17.

His new partner is Irvine, California, online advertising network operator, specific media.He said Wednesday afternoon that it had bought MySpace by News Corp. The agreement was for $ 35 million, mostly in stock.

Hours later, Specific Media, said in a release that Timberlake had been a part owner and would be a creative force behind the revival of social networking with its own office and staff.

To make Timberlake partnership was not completed, was published until 30 minutes prior to Specific Media's MySpace purchase.

It capped a hasty courtship, starting with an idea hatched by Nicole Winnaman, a brand manager, also with Timberlake for his' N Sync days.

She knew that people at Specific Media, including the founding brothers, Tim, Chris and Russell Vander Hook, and got permission from Wright, to explore a partnership two weeks ago.

Vanderhook jumped on board last Thursday, not knowing they would win the bid on Myspace.

"It was the Thursday before. They said,` Come on, let's see if we can put together, '"said Winnaman.

Wright, Vander Hook Winnaman and met on Friday last week at Los Angeles International Airport for a meal and a conference call with Timberlake, who was in New York. They met again in New York on Tuesday evening, where everyone is "at once aligned," said Winnaman. The lawyers worked through the night, before the deal announced Wednesday.

Wright said that Timberlake is eager to start working. The day after closing, Timberlake Wright sent an e-mail: "Are you ready My mind is dizzy ideas I have to talk to you .."

Co-founder Biz Stone leaving Twitter (AP)

Biz Stone

LOS ANGELES – Isaac Stone "Biz" is moving from Twitter, just five years after co-founder of the microblogging site that has become an integral part of the social scene of the media around the world.

Stone, 37, said Tuesday in his blog that the company will work with "for many years to come," but the most effective use of your time is now to "get out of the way" of the team and team leadership Twitter until he is called to be a specific use.

Stone said he plans to focus on helping schools, nonprofit organizations and business advisory committees. Also "raise other obvious Corp. co-founder Evan Williams of Twitter to develop new projects.

The move comes as Twitter has tried to develop its popularity to make more money by selling more ads.The private company does not reveal its finances, but research firm eMarketer Inc. estimated Twitter bring advertising revenue of about $ 150 million this year.

Stone caps a year of change management for the company based in San Francisco. Last fall, Williams was handed the reins to current CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, and moved to explore new business ideas. In March, the third Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey returned home to manage the product development as executive chairman.

AP Source: News Corp. to sell MySpace this week (AP)

LOS ANGELES – News Corp. aims to sell struggling social network MySpace this week after three years of huge losses according to a person familiar with the matter. The move will likely result in the dismissal of more than half of the remaining pages 500 employees.

It is a shocking departure once hot Internet property that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch predicted four years ago, eventually one billion U.S. dollars in annual revenue to make. MySpace has never achieved that goal. This year, MySpace is expected to be less than one fifth of that as ad sales fall to do, according to research firm eMarketer.

MySpace has collapsed with the advent of Facebook – largely due to the clean interface, smoother operation and better integration with other services. MySpace was generally clumsy, slow and strewn with display ads. It was also slower to adapt.

At least three bidders are still in the race for MySpace – online advertising network provider Specific Media, a private equity fund of fund Golden Gate Capital and Austin Ventures, an investment fund that works with MySpace cofounder Chris DeWolfe. The company is not a buyer yet, according to the person who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke of elected condition of anonymity.

News Corp is to cut us a deal on Wednesday or Thursday to get it implemented in their fiscal year ends on Thursday.

Earlier, News Corp.-owned restaurants had told All D website, MySpace was sold on the threshold of becoming the $ 20 million to $ 30,000,000. The person said the deal price will likely be much higher, and a combination of cash and shares.

Any sale at this price would be an impressive resolution of 2005, when News Corp.bought a promising start for $ 580 million as the social network was in its infancy.

Facebook has become the dominant platform for social media, with over half billion users. A recent Private Investment Capital Corp. GSV value Facebook at $ 50 billion. LinkedIn Corp., a social network for professionals, recently went public and now has a market capitalization of about $ 8 billion.

The low estimate for MySpace suggests that there may be residual value in the brand, technology and the basis of the decline in visitors, Debra Aho Williamson said, principal analyst with research firm eMarketer.

"This shows that this is just something that News Corp. wants to get his books at all costs can be achieved," he said.

MySpace has a major overhaul in October, in an attempt to a hub for the consumption of entertainment content, but it has not helped reverse off visitors.In January, fired nearly half the staff, or about 500, with the hope of a return to profitability.

The site is still losing money. For the three months to March showed the segment of News Corp. that includes MySpace $ 165 million. That was worse than the loss of $ 150 million recorded a year earlier, mainly due to lower advertising revenue on the site. They scored on 11 straight quarterly loss since mid-2008, a period in which the segment lost about $ 1.4 billion cumulatively.

MySpace CEO Mike Jones is the last remnant of an executive team of three people who came to fix the place in April 2009. It is unclear whether Jones will remain after a sale.

According to tracking firm comScore Inc., MySpace had 74 million visitors worldwide May, up 32 percent over the previous year. In comparison, Facebook had 1.1 million, 26 percent, had 139 million Twitter, LinkedIn had 54 percent of 86 million dollars.

News Corp. shares rose 25 cents, or 1.5 percent, to close Tuesday at $ 17.17.