昨天我和红点创投（Redpoint Ventures）和合伙人杰奥夫•杨一起共进了午餐。杰奥夫•杨曾是MySpace的投资人，直到MySpace被卖给新闻集团（News Corp）的前几个月，他还在对它进行投资。事实上昨天只有我一个人吃了东西，杨只是喝了一点冰茶（他已经吃过了）。这真是一举两得，因为这样一来，他就有了更多的时间讲话，我也有更多的时间倾听。

    先给那些不了解背景的读者简单科普一下：MySpace曾经是一家名叫Intermix的公司的子公司，2003年MySpace从优点资本（VantagePoint Venture Partners）手中募得一笔风险投资，又于2004年12月从红点创投那里获得另一轮投资。2005年2月，红点创投向MySpace追加了400万美元投资，购入了一支特别股份。2005年7月，Intermix决定以5.81亿美元的价格将公司出售给新闻集团，这意味着优点资本将为其1，530万美元的初始投资收到1.39亿美元的回报，而红点创投也将因其1，550万美元的投资而收获4，450万美元的回报。

    再把目光投向上周。新闻集团上周同意以3，500万美元的白菜价，将MySpace卖给一家由私募基金投资的在线广告网络Specific Media.

    看了本周的新闻报道，你可能会想，杨和其他投资人在2005年断然将MySpace出手，他们可真是天才。不过杨却不这么想。他认为这是一次机会的流失。事实上，杨当年强烈反对将MySpace卖给新闻集团，因为他认为MySpace的价值被严重低估了。要知道在2005年的时候，MySpace的用户还是Facebook的4到5倍。

    “我对别人说，MySpace可能成为一家价值10亿美元的公司，10亿美元在当时算是一大笔钱了。”他说。

    但是杨最终未能力排众议，MySpace也被新闻集团接手了。杨认为，在新闻集团接手后的6年里，MySpace从里到外没有发生任何明显的变化。“它现在看起来基本上和当时是一样的。”他说。唯一的区别就是MySpace现在更注重音乐了。

    不过杨仍然认为MySpace还是有价值的。一年前他找到新闻集团，建议由红点创投帮助新闻集团进行一次无成本交易，将MySpace剥离出去。这桩交易允许新闻集团保留一部分股权。它多少可以给新闻集团留点面子（新闻集团仍将拥有部分所有权，如果MySpace的业绩好转，新闻集团也可以分一杯羹），而且还能给一个对MySpace有深厚感情的人一个令MySpace起死回生的机会。但新闻集团拒绝了他的提议，而是雇了一名银行家筹备出售事宜，一年后就将MySpace甩卖了出去。售价之低，只相当于新闻集团资产负债表上的一个零头。

    大多数人在回忆起一笔净赚了近3倍的短期投资时都会很开心，但是杨看起来似乎颇为没能再次入主MySpace而感到惋惜。

    译者：朴成奎

    Yesterday I had lunch with Redpoint Ventures partner Geoff Yang, who had invested in MySpace just months before it was sold to News Corp. Actually, I had lunch and Geoff had iced tea (he had already eaten). Pretty good deal, since it gave him more time to talk and me more time to listen.

    For the uninitiated, MySpace used to be the subsidiary of something called Intermix, which had raised VC funding from VantagePoint Venture Partners in 2003 and round from Redpoint in December 2004. Redpoint also invested another $4 million in February 2005 for a specific stake in MySpace. When Intermix chose to sell to News Corp. in July 2005 for $581 million, it meant: A return for VantagePoint of $139 million on $15.3 million invested, and a return of $44.5 million on $15.5 million invested for Redpoint (according to Bill Burnham).

    Fast forward to this past week, and News Corp. (NWS) agreed to sell MySpace to a PE-backed online ad network called Specific Media for a paltry $35 million.

    From reading press reports this week, one might think Yang and others were geniuses to sell back in 2005. But Yang doesn't see it that way. He sees it as opportunity lost. In fact, he strongly opposed the original sale to News Corp., believing that MySpace was being severely undervalued. Remember, these were in the days when MySpace still had 4x or 5x more users than did Facebook.

    "I told people it could be a $1 billion company, which was a lot of money at that time," he says

    But Yang lost that battle, and News Corp. took over. In the intervening six years, Yang believes that News Corp. destroyed the asset's value by not making significant changes on either the front or back end. "It still basically looks the same today as it did back then," he says. The only real difference was a more concentrated focus on music.

    But Yang still believed there was value in MySpace, and one year ago went to News Corp. with a proposal: Redpoint would help spin MySpace out of News Corp., in a no-cost deal that would allow News Corp. to retain an ownership stake. It would have let News Corp. save some face (still a part-owner, able to capitalize on any upside), while giving a longtime MySpace admirer the opportunity to turn things around. But News Corp. turned him down, hired a banker and one year later got what amounts to an accounting error on the media giant's balance sheet.

    Most people would be happy to reminisce about a short-term investment that returned nearly 3x. But Yang still seems to regret that he wasn't able to be in it for the long haul…