News Corp has agreed to sell social media site Myspace for about $35 million to online advertising company Specific Media, according to a source familiar with the transaction.

The deal, expected to close later on Wednesday, is a mix of cash and stock with News Corp retaining about 5 percent.

Additionally, more than 50 percent of Myspace's 500-strong workforce is expected to be laid off because of the sale, the source said.

The source is not authorized to speak publicly because the deal has not yet closed.

The sale of Myspace caps six years of ownership under Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which swooped in to buy Myspace in 2005 for $580 million beating out rival Viacom for what was then one of the world's hottest social networking sites.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba, editing by Bernard Orr)

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