Myspace: Sheer Bradness

[geek]

Brad Greenspan, the little-known internet entrepreneur who's just launched a bid for Dow Jones, certainly knows how to hold a grudge. The resentful Los Angeles entrepreneur, who controlled the company which incubated Myspace, has long argued that News Corporation's purchase of the social network was, literally, a steal. (Valleywag unwisely published a confused account, inspired by Greenspan, of Myspace's creation story.)His proposal to Dow Jones, the iconic business news group that owns the 117-year-old Wall Street Journal, could be seen as a sign of the boom: internet entrepreneurs have the aura and the leverage to pull off improbable deals, again. And it provides Greenspan with a way to underline, in the first sentence of his letter to the Dow Jones board, no less, his claim to be the one true founder of Myspace.
But there is a simpler explanation, and it's pathetic: Greenspan is simply trying to disrupt the bid by his nemesis for Dow Jones. Rupert Murdoch, at 76 years old, has softened; but he still makes, for retrograde print journalists and delusional entrepreneurs, an excellent bogeyman. And I doubt he'll give this rival bid more than five minutes thought, and a laugh.
[IMG]http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/valleywag/full?i=6ZVajF[/IMG]


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