Specific Media Buys MYSPACE

This is the press release announcing the sale and the good news is that MYSPACE sold to a local - Irvine - company which means MYSPACE hopefully will remained headquartered in the LA area.  The other good news is that the Vanderhook brothers might just be the perfect guys to revitalize the brand.

SPECIFIC MEDIA ACQUIRES MYSPACE FROM NEWS CORPORATION

Los Angeles, Calif. — June 29, 2011 – Specific Media, a digital media company, today announced it has acquired Myspace from News Corporation. As part of the agreement, News Corporation will take a minority equity stake in Specific Media. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed.

“Myspace is a recognized leader that has pioneered the social media space. The company has transformed the ways in which audiences discover, consume and engage with content online,” said Tim Vanderhook, Specific Media CEO. “There are many synergies between our companies as we are both focused on enhancing digital media experiences by fueling connections with relevance and interest. We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation.”

Specific Media is an innovative global interactive media company that enables advertisers to connect with consumers in meaningful, impactful and relevant ways. Founded in 1999 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russell Vanderhook, Specific Media is currently headquartered in Irvine, CA and operates offices around the world.

About Myspace

Myspace, Inc. is a leading social entertainment destination powered by the passions of fans. Aimed at a Gen Y audience, Myspace drives social interaction by providing a highly personalized experience around entertainment and connecting people to the music, celebrities, TV, movies, and games that they love. These entertainment experiences are available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices, and offline events.

Myspace is also the home of Myspace Music, which offers an ever-growing catalogue of freely streamable audio and video content to users and provides major, independent, and unsigned artists alike with the tools to reach new audiences. The company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA.  http://www.myspace.com/pressroom/

About Specific Media

Specific Media is a digital media company driving viewership for content owners, engagement for brands and relevance for consumers. With capabilities spanning original programming, cross-channel distribution and addressable advertising, the company connects audiences, content and brands, adding meaning to each touch-point. As people discover new ways to consume content, Specific Media creates impactful media experiences no matter where they are.

www.specificmedia.com.

Blogdowntown Recommends 'Secrets of Historic Downtown LA' Tours This Saturday and Sunday

Downtown's Cowboy Launching History Tours

By ERIC RICHARDSON

Published: Thursday, June 23, 2011, at 07:21AM

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — If you want to get to know the story of Downtown's development, you're not going to hear it from a much more colorful character than Brady Westwater. He's had some sort of a hand in most deals that had come through the Historic Core over the last decade, and probably done them all while wearing his trademark cowboy hat and wrestling t-shirts.

This Saturday, Westwater partners with The Last Bookstore to kick off a series of tours with "Historic Downtown 101." He promises "an overview of the multiple histories of the streets of Broadway, Spring and Main" that will offer a view of both new and old history of Downtown.

Attendance is $15, proceeds from which will go to "the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood." To reserve a spot, call Westwater at 213-804-8396.

Tours are this Saturday June 25th from 11 AM - 1:30 PM and Sunday, June 26th, from Noon to 2:30 PM and the Saturday tour will include the interior of the Palace Theater.

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http://blogdowntown.com/2011/06/6286-downtowns-cowboy-launching-history-tours

Guided Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles Start This Saturday & Sunday June 25th and 26th

The Last Bookstore Presents….

  

The Secret Lives of Downtown

A series of guided walking tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles’s secret past, its present - and its future.

The first two tours - at only $15 per person - start this Saturday June 25th from 11 AM - 1:30 PM and Sunday, June 26th, from Noon to 2:30 PM.   All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight & CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.

The first two “Historic Downtown 101” tours will be a general introduction to our rapidly developing neighborhood and an overview of the multiple histories of the streets of Broadway, Spring and Main. 

If you are a participant, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for all this are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396.  All credit card orders should be processed either at Last Bookstore or after you make reservations.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to Luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood.

For future updates and more information go to www.historicdowntownlosangeles.blogspot.com

THE LAST BOOKSTORE has 2,000 discounted new art & architecture books on sale at tonight's Art Walk!

2,000 new art books for sale on Art Walk!  The Last Bookstore, which just moved and expanded into a 10,000 sq ft space in the Ground Floor of the Spring Arts Tower at 5th & Spring, will release 2000 new discounted art and architecture books Thursday June 8th for Art Walk.  Five live bands are playing, starting at 7 pm.  Store opens at 10 AM & closes at midnight.