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MySpace to Acquire Photo-Sharing Site

Popular online social-networking site MySpace has reached a preliminary deal to acquire top photo-sharing site Photobucket for approximately $250 million in cash, according to a report by Reuters.

Rather than keep users locked solely to its own site, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Photobucket helps Web users post their photos on other social-networking sites, including Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, eBay, Craigslist, Blogger, Xanga and even MySpace. The four-year-old start-up also provides free online storage tools that enable its 41 million registered users to save multimedia, from photos to videos to digital slide-shows, to decorate their sites. It now hosts nearly 2.8 billion images on the site.

Photobucket holds a nearly 40% share of the U.S. online photo market, nearly four times more than Yahoo Inc., according to audience measurement firm Hit-wise. Besides being the third most popular destination for MySpace users after Google and Yahoo, Photobucket was the 22nd most visited U.S. site overall in the first week of May, according to Hit-wise statistics.

Office Depot Launches ‘Green’ Web Site

Delray Beach, Fla.-based Office Depot launched a new e-commerce Web site devoted to helping shoppers “buy green.” The site, www.officedepot.com/buygreen, features several recycled products, including folders, paper and easel pads, as well as other environmentally friendly items.

“Office Depot’s environmental program is structured around a vision to increasingly ‘buy green, be green and sell green,’” said Yalmaz Siddiqui, environmental strategy advisor for Office Depot. “It’s important for us that our customers are just as environmentally conscious.”