From the more than half-a-billion money it poured in 2005 to snatch the then hotshot social networking site MySpace, Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp. has decided to jettison the website from its portfolio and sell the company to advertising firm Specific Media for a measly $35 million.

The lopsided sale came as MySpace gradually loses its dominance in the lucrative social media market now ruled by Facebook.

Reuters said on Thursday that the deal involves pop superstar Justin Timberlake, who once played as one of the founding executives of Facebook in the Oscar-nominated film 'The Social Network'.

In a statement, News Corp said that Specific Media will effectively gain majority ownership of MySpace under the deal while it will retain a minority interest of up to five percent, according to an unidentified source cited by Reuters.

Reports said that Timberlake will assume a key role in developing strategies to market the once-popular website but the percentage of his ownership to the venture is unclear for now.

At present, News Corp employs a 500-strong workforce to run the social networking outfit and analysts said that the entire staff will likely be handed their walking papers once the deal has been finalised.

MySpace was established a year earlier from Facebook by Chris De Wolfe and Tom Anderson in August 2003, which according to Reuters was originally intended by its owners to facilitate easy connection between friends and fans to their favorite celebrity artists.

Eventually, the site overtook the then popular competitors Multiply.com and Friendster and peaked to registered membership of some 80 million people in the United States alone, which experts said overwhelmed the company in keeping up with the pace of its exponential growth.

As Facebook accelerated its campaign to attract more users by allowing the deployment of third-party apps in its website such as the huge hit FarmVille, which hooked up millions more to its site, My Space saw its membership sliced into half by 2011 as users' interest waned.

On the same year, Reuters said that MySpace reported a quarterly operating loss of $165 million as analysts projected of consistent decline for the site that sets it up for possible takeover as News Corp hints of offloading a once promising asset that has been quickly transformed into a liability.