MySpace co-founder acquires video-sharing site

Brad Greenspan, co-founder of MySpace.com and founder of LiveUniverse, an online entertainment network, announced that his company has acquired ailing video-sharing site Revver.

Greenspan said in a statement that he plans to merge the offerings of Revver and LiveVideo.com, his company's social-network and video site. Revver will continue to operate under its own brand.

But the ex-MySpace executive did not pass up the opportunity to take a few swipes at his former company. Greenspan opposed the 2005 sale of MySpace to News Corp. and has badmouthed MySpace and its parent company ever since.

Half of his press release announcing the Revver purchase is dedicated to blaming MySpace for Revver's failure to attract fans.

Greenspan traces Revver's troubles to January 2007, when MySpace blocked access to Revver's video player. MySpace banned Revver because of its policy prohibiting third parties from posting ads on MySpace.

Revver embedded ads within videos and was booted. That's not how Greenspan saw it.

"MySpace had become a predator aggressively blocking and censoring any Web service it deemed competitive," LiveUniverse said in its press release.

Funny thing is, none of the former Revver employees or founders I've spoken to ever link the company's problems to MySpace. They typically talk about YouTube's overwhelming command of the video-sharing sector.

Terms of the Revver acquisition were not disclosed, but sources familiar with the deal say Revver was sold for pennies on the dollar. Sources told CNET News.com last month that Revver was asking for between $300,000 and $500,000 in cash and the assumption of the company's $1 million debt.

News.com has since learned that Revver's debt was $2.5 million. NewTeeVee, which broke the news of Revver's acquisition, quoted sources who said that Greenspan paid just under $5 million for the troubled company.

Investors had pumped about $13 million into Los Angeles-based Revver since 2005.