News Corp is planning to sell social network site MySpace this week after three years of massive losses, Business Day reports quoting a person familiar with the matter.

The move will likely result in the layoff of more than half of the site's remaining 500 workers. At least three bidders are still in the running - online advertising network Specific Media, private equity fund Golden Gate Capital and Austin Ventures, an investment fund that is working with MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, the report says.

The company hasn't chosen a front-runner yet, according to the person, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, the News Corp-owned website All Things D reported that MySpace was on the verge of being sold for $US20 million ($19.2 million) to $US30 million ($28.79 million). The person said the deal price will likely be much higher and include a combination of cash and stock.

Even so, any sale around that price would mark a stunning reversal from 2005, when News Corp bought the promising startup for $US580 million ($556.68 million) when social networking was in its infancy.

Since then, rival site Facebook has turned into the dominant social media platform with more than half a billion users.

A recent investment by private fund GSV Capital Corp valued Facebook at $US50 billion ($47.99 billion). LinkedIn Corp, a social network for professionals, recently went public and now has a market capitalisation of about $US8 billion ($7.68 billion).

According to tracking firm comScore Inc, MySpace had 74 million visitors from around the world in May, down 32 per cent from a year earlier.

By comparison, Facebook had 1.1 billion, up 26 per cent; Twitter had 139 million, up 54 per cent; and LinkedIn had 86 million.