The Murdoch-owned Times of London reported his News Corp media conglomerate would exchange social networking site MySpace . . . for which Murdoch paid an eyebrow-raising $580m . . . for 25% of Yahoo.

This is some deal for the Australian-born billionaire. Although analysts have been criticising Yahoo's lack of direction in recent months, it's still worth an estimated $37bn. If Murdoch does get his way, he will have offloaded a half a billion dollar teen chat site, which he himself admits is loosing members to rival FaceBook, for a at least a $9bn slice of an internet giant with buckets of potential.

Getting in to bed with NewsCorp might not be a bad thing for Yahoo, as it needs, ahem, decent news content. It is also interested in social networking, evidenced by two failed forays in to the social networking morass. Separate media reports quoting unnamed sources claim Yahoo made a USD1bn bid for FaceBook, and the same amount for Bebo. Both bids were spurned.

A News Corp connexion could also be a precursor to some more long-term strategic moves. Online analysts have been discussing the possibilities of a mega-merger to take on Google for several months now, and if Yahoo did enter into talks with, say, eBay . . . or Microsoft . . . to take on the Redmond behemoth, News Corp are likely to be a useful addition to its team.

In a statement to the Sunday Tribune, Yahoo said it did not comment on speculation. News Corp did not respond to queries.

YouTube, the video sharing site Google bought last year for $1.6bn, as the best exemplar of this ideal.

"YouTube grows because people contribute to it . . . that's why it's so powerful . . . users are generating the content. YouTube does for video what Google has done for information generally . . . remove the barriers that keep people from information."