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MySpace Founders Re-Up at News Corp.
Remember how MySpace founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe had to sign a new contract with News Corp. sometime this month or pack up their desks?
Well, they're not going anywhere. A well-placed News Corp. source tells me they've reached a new agreement, which the company will announce any day now. No response yet from MySpace or News Corp. reps.
As for specifics, it sounds like the pair ended up compromising on something short of the astronomical salary they were seeking. DeWolfe and Anderson had reportedly been clamoring for a two-year deal worth $50 million, or $12.5 million each per year. Nikki Finke's sources pegged the likelihood of that happening at "slim to none," and said the company was offering a little over half that amount, or $15 million each over two years.*
I don't know where the numbers came out, but I do know that DeWolfe will be taking on major new responsibilities at Fox Interactive, the News Corp. unit that houses MySpace. "Chris is going to have a lot more authority," says an insider with knowledge. "Peter Chernin is beside himself."
That's the bad kind of beside himself. Chernin, you see, is one of the many News Corp. types who view DeWolfe and Anderson less as social-networking visionaries than as former spammers who happened to strike it rich. Fortunately for DeWolfe, Rupert Murdoch has a higher opinion of him.
UPDATE, 4:40 p.m.: Confirmation, of a sort: A second source, this one closer to the situation, confirms that DeWolfe and Anderson's new deal is in place, to be made public today or tomorrow, but says DeWolfe's duties will be essentially unchanged. And logically, of course, Peter Chernin can't be beside himself about something that's not happening, right?
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Photo of Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson by David Strick/Redux
*This originally read "$15 million each per year," which was a typo.
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