Media giant News Corp. has discussed swapping social networking site MySpace with Internet giant Yahoo in return for a 25-percent stake in the group, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. The Times, which is owned by News Corp., said that the "tentative" talks could collapse following last week's departure of Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel and his replacement by co-founder Jerry Yang.

News Corp. was interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give it exposure to a far larger Internet-based business, The Times said.

News Corp. also owns games network IGN, which is also thought to have been offered to Yahoo as part of the deal, according to the report.

The Times added that it was not clear whether Yahoo was willing to accept the terms offered by News Corp.

MySpace was snapped up by News Corp. in 2005 for 580 million dollars.