It looks like the News Corp. owned IGN Entertainment is to be sold off, after News Corp. failed to sell the company, according to people involved with both sides of negotiations, reports The Wall Street Journal. The media company is now launching the formal sales process of IGN.

News Corp. originally purchased IGN in 2005 for $650 million which includes websites such as IGN.com, GameSpy.com and TeamXbox.com with a few of those sites already sold. IGN is expected to receive around $100 million in the sales process, a huge loss compared to the $650 million purchase price in 2005. IGN have looked for help with investment bank Allen & Co. after multiple attempts at finding a partner failed.

Things aren't looking good for News Corp. who purchased MySpace six years ago for $580 million, selling it off last year for a pittance at just $35 million. The media company have been focusing more on digitizing their journalism properties, after some of their biggest digital acquisitions were overtaken by faster-moving rivals. IGN's chief executive Roy Bahat resigned from the company in August, saying in an email to his staff:

It has become clear that now is the time to refresh the process of looking at strategic options for this business.