News Corp. is in talks with Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. about advertising on MySpace, as an existing contract with Google ends, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Under a 2006 deal, Google had guaranteed $900 million to News Corp. for the right to sell advertisements related to user searches on MySpace and some other small News Corp. websites, the Journal reported.
MySpace has of late not met traffic and other requirements in the Google deal, the paper said.
That deal expires at the end of August and News Corp. is in talks for narrower agreements, the Journal said, adding people close to the company expect a new agreement would be for much less money.
MySpace, Google and Yahoo declined to comment. Microsoft was not immediately available on Monday, a U.S. holiday.
