Life imitates art: Timberlake becomes real-life social networker

Justin Timberlake apparently wasn't satisfied with just playing a social media impresario in the movies, so now he's becoming one in real life.

The pop star, who played Napster co-founder Sean Parker in The Social Network, a film about Facebook, has joined Specific Media in buying its rival, MySpace, from News Corp.

Timberlake will have an office at MySpace's Beverly Hills headquarters and about six staff working for him "around the clock" developing his ideas for the site, said Specific Media chief executive Tim Vanderhook.

The partners are set to unveil their plans for reviving the flagging site in a couple of months.

"When we met with Justin and we discussed what our strategy was, we hit a chord with him," Mr Vanderhook said. "One of his passions is he really enjoys helping other artists and creating a community for people to really express themselves. I think we were blown away that we were able to get someone like Justin to be so excited about what we were doing."

The deal is for $35m (£21.8m), mostly in Specific Media stock, according to a source familiar with the matter. That's a small fraction of the $580m that News Corp paid for the site six years ago. The sale resulted in the dismissal of about half of the site's remaining 500 workers, said the source.

As part of the exchange, News Corp received a private equity stake in Specific Media and less than a 5 per cent stake in MySpace.

With Timberlake's help, the buyers hope to revitalise MySpace and transform it into a destination for original shows, and bolster its video content and music. Mr Vanderhook said the revamp would include additional investment in technology, and maintain the right to stream music through the joint venture it has with major recording companies, MySpace Music. AP