In case you hadn't noticed already, analysts love making up numbers about MySpace. After dismal earnings of about $90 million last year, Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif is now saying that the site could generate ad revenues of $271 million this year. Reif also predicted that Fox Interactive Media, the Internet division of Fox, will generate its first profit this year: $208 million. That figure takes into account the Google ad deal.
Oh wait, but didn't analyst Richard Greenfield just say at the end of March that MySpace is generating "in excess of $30 million/month" in ad revenue? Greenfield also said that monthly ad revenues would double over the next year - pick whichever analyst you believe.
Aside from that, the BusinessWeek article that reports the Merrill Lynch figures is just covering old ground: there's a MySpace-eBay hookup that should be a money earner for them, the Prom Queen deal with Eisner and the ability to sell branded pages to big boys like Burger King and Pontiac.