Synergies? Fox News Skips Fox's Own Social Network For Facebook

from the synergies-don't-mean-much dept

While we do believe that there can be so-called "synergies" in various mergers and acquisitions, it often does seem as though companies over state what those benefits may be. Take, for example, the news that TV channel Fox News has set up shop on Facebook, rather than the social network's main competitor, MySpace. MySpace just so happens to be owned by Fox -- so it may seem odd that Fox News chose to go with Facebook rather than sister company MySpace. Basically, it appears that Fox News recognized that it was more likely to find an audience on Facebook than MySpace. This highlights just how silly some expected "synergies" often turn out to be. While many may have expected that the close relationship between Fox News and MySpace would mean that there's some advantage to both organizations to work together, the truth was the opposite. If Fox News had gone with MySpace instead, due to "synergies," (i.e., management mandates that those two companies work together) the end effect would have been worse. Fox News would have gone with the social network that didn't fit as well -- just to please management. So, rather than a "benefit" the so-called synergy would have been a net negative. In other words, the so-called "synergies" wouldn't actually have been... well... synergistic. The end result shows why so many mergers over so-called "synergies" don't really make much sense. If there's true synergy between the separate organizations, then they can work together as partners, rather than from within the same company. Otherwise, you get a situation where you may be locked in to a partner who is not as good as one outside your organization. (Post updated to clarify).
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Filed Under: social networks, synergies
Companies: facebook, fox, fox news, myspace


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  1. identicon
    Kilgore Trout, 18 Aug 2008 @ 8:58pm

    Shouldn't post while high

    Puff, Puff, Give man. Seriously, that made close to no fucking sense whatsoever.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Daev, 18 Aug 2008 @ 9:56pm

    ^^^

    LMFAO!! So true ... those last few sentences made 0 sense. I had to check to make sure I wasn't high.

    Seriously OP ... you seem to have gone a little trigger happy with the word "synergy".

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    wasnt me!, 18 Aug 2008 @ 10:07pm

    evidently the synergy here was with facebook not with myspace.

    and yeah that article didn't make much sense.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    aly khalid, 18 Aug 2008 @ 10:13pm

    confused

    I'll have to agree with the comments above. Please rephrase the article it did not make sense at all.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Mike (profile), 18 Aug 2008 @ 10:25pm

    clarified

    Hey guys,

    Hmm. Sorry. I reread it and still didn't find it that confusing (and, no, not high). But, I still tried to rewrite it to clarify a bit. Sorry if it was confusing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Tony, 18 Aug 2008 @ 11:20pm

    Murdoc didn't purchase Myspace to be synergistic with Fox News....seriously...where do people come up with these articles?

    Myspace was a hot commodity and scooped up swiftly and now they really just don't know how to score with it (in the money sense).

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2008 @ 3:57am

    'Synergy' is corporate speak for 'blow'

    Thought everybody knew that...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2008 @ 4:50am

    Had an Econ Professor once . . .

    Told me there was no such thing as a successful "synergestic merger" in the entire history of modern economics. The term is mainly just used to support deals that make no actual financial sense.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Reason, 19 Aug 2008 @ 6:54am

    Re: Had an Econ Professor once . . .

    Yep, that's the truth. "Synergy" is corporate-speak for "we have no clue how this will work."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Sean, 19 Aug 2008 @ 8:11am

    I do not know why they just did not have some one make a little CGI program they will automatically allow them to submit every thing they send to facebook to also send it to myspace and youtube. They would have more viewers and possibilities

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Objection, 20 Aug 2008 @ 7:32am

    Synergies

    Guess it would be too difficult for them to setup shop on both myspace and facebook...

    link to this | view in thread ]


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