News Corp. quickly shoots down rumors of MySpace ad shakeup
Even though Google executives have said that its advertising contract with News Corp. has been less profitable than expected, the partnership does not appear to be over.
This post was updated at 12:54 p.m. PST to add formal comment from Fox Interactive Media.
Don't expect News Corp. to jump ship on its advertising contract with Google for social network MySpace, representatives from the company said on Monday.
TechCrunch had reported earlier that News Corp. was potentially in negotiations with Microsoft, which serves ads on MySpace rival Facebook, as a replacement for the Google ads that have run on MySpace and other Fox Interactive Media sites since August 2006. Google co-founder Sergey Brin had said in the company's most recent earnings announcement that its advertising contract with Fox Interactive had proven less lucrative than expected.
But a News Corp. representative told the Silicon Alley Insider soon after that the report was "100 percent categorically untrue." A Fox Interactive Media representative then confirmed to CNET News.com that "There's no truth to rumors that Fox Interactive Media is interested in getting out of a strategic search deal with Google."
Case closed.