Facebook and MySpace in talks over content-sharing deal

Facebook and MySpace are discussing setting up a content-sharing partnership, according to reports.

Facebook

Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta both told The Telegraph they were in discussions about a partnership to share MySpace content across Facebook. If the deal goes ahead, Facebook users will be able to share MySpace music and video footage using the Facebook Connect platform.

Van Natta, who was formerly Facebook’s chief revenue officer, said, “We’re in talks with Facebook and other sites about how we could partner with them.”

Facebook’s Sandberg said, “We’re open to working with MySpace and are in talks. Owen used to work at Facebook and we’re still very close to him.”

Van Natta’s appointment at MySpace was followed by widespread redundancies (nma.co.uk 23 June 2009) and a change in the direction of the business away from being purely a social network to focus instead on music and entertainment content, after it lost ground to Facebook for audience numbers.

As part of its redirection, MySpace last week announced a string of new music and video services (nma.co.uk 22 October 2009). The deal with Facebook Connect could enable MySpace to expand the reach of these services.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk