Oldest social network Friendster is on sale

Facebook and MySpace’s predecessor, Friendster, will be sold to an Asian listed firm for more than $100 million in a deal set to be announced by the end of the month.

It’s known Friendster, being founded in 2002, lost its positions in the US quickly. The social networking portal now mostly used in Asia where more than half of its registered 100 million users are from.

TechCrunch, an industry blog, valued Friendster at $210 million in July, while a fraction of Facebook's measured $10 billion valuation.

Friendster holds five US patents related to social networking according to the United States Patents and Trademarks Office.

 According to the Friendster chief executive Richard Kimber’s words, Morgan Stanley had been hired to handle the deal.

Friendster, like Facebook, has been struggling to find an effective monetisation strategy. Friday, the company rebranded its main website targeting a younger audience and plans to shift its revenue focus from advertising to micro-transaction.

Friendster had turned down a $30 million buyout offer from Google Inc six years ago.

 China's largest Internet company by market value at $35 billion, Tencent Holdings, was among the short-listed bidders, while Facebook also showed interest but was turned down due to competition and intellectual property issues, the source said.