News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch appears ready to ditch control of MySpace in favor of a 25% stake in Yahoo Yahoo!according to key industry sources including Marketing Pilgrim’s Andy Beal. In exchange for selling MySpace to Yahoo for the princely sum of $12 billion, Murdoch’s company would gain partial ownership of Yahoo (that amount has been reported to be a 30% share by the UK Times).

First Facebook, Now Myspace?

The news of a possible deal comes after Yahoo backed off from purchasing MySpace rival Facebook last fall when the price of Facebook pushed past $1 billion. Facebook has been steadily gaining ground on MySpace, but the Mark Zuckerberg-led company has decided to remain independent a decision that could quickly change if MySpace becomes part of the Yahoo network.

A Twenty-Fold Profit For News Corp!

For Murdoch, the sale of MySpace to Yahoo would be a watershed event. Two years ago Murdoch paid $580 million for MySpace so the $11+ billion dollar profit would come in handy for News Corp. as it battles the General Electric/Pearson/Bancroft Family coalition for ownership of Dow Jones (owner of the Wall Street Journal).