Fox Interactive Media (FIM), the parent company of the UK's most popular social networking site MySpace, has announced it is set to buy photo-sharing site Photobucket and slide-show mash-up creator Flektor.FIM, a division of News Corp, has ended the recent stand-off between MySpace and the US's most popular photo site by revealing they are set to join forces.
The double acquisition had been expected for some time and was reported by bigmouthmedia earlier this month.
The deal will strengthen the FIM network's photo and video sharing capabilities and reaffirm MySpace's status as the number one social networking site.
The Photobucket deal is expected to be the most lucrative, as it is already the 34th most visited website in the United States, with over 42 million users and 17 million monthly visitors.
However, it hasn't exactly been plain sailing between FIM and Photobucket, after MySpace blocked Photobucket's embedded video and slide show widgets last month following a violation related to a Spider-Man 3 promotional campaign.
The deal is thought to be worth around $250 million for Photobucket, while the relatively new site Flektor is rumoured to have sold for around $20 million.
Photobucket co-founder Alex Welch told the Denver Post: "As we continued to build our services and our roadmap, it made sense to sit down and look at strategic options.
"When we looked at everything we were looking to accomplish ... it made sense to team up with Fox Interactive."
