Newscorp pulls trigger on Photobucket purchase

MySpace, owned by News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) Fox Interactive Media, has become the largest social networking spot on the internet, and the company is taking steps to keep it that way by purchasing the photo-sharing site Photobucket for a reported $250-300 million.

Up until now, in order for MySpace users to embed photos and videos into their space, they had to first post that content on outside sites such as Photobucket and YouTube, then embed links to it. Photobucket holds a dominant share of that photo-sharing market (41%) and over 40% of the links to its content comes from MySpace users.

A couple of weeks ago, Fox Interactive Media (FIM) began to block content from Photobucket, accusing it of encouraging MySpace users to embed Photobucket-hosted content that carried an accompanying advertisement. If this was a negotiating tactic, it didn't seem to drive the price down much; News Corp is rumored to have dropped $250-300 million for the site.

The move will allow FIM to keep MySpace customers within the family fold as they upload content, thus avoiding the possibility that while on the Photobucket site they might be lured to try a competitor to MySpace.

FIM also announced a smaller deal to buy Flektor, a site that allows users to prep better user content by editing and mashing up their photos and videos.

While their initial plan is to maintain separate identities for the companies, I'd expect FIM to eventually fold both companies into the MySpace family to create a seamless one-stop shop. It also now has the opportunity to market MySpace to the reported 30 million people that visited Photobucket in March.

While the price paid seems steep, the race to integration has become a sprint, and all the big rollers have bought into the game. It's not a market for the thin of wallet or faint of heart.