MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe was speaking at the Reuters Media Summit (not open to other reporters, only internal Reuters reporters), and said he is cautiously optimistic about growing its ad revenues in 2009, something that of course he has to say officially. “We’re up 18 percent year-over-year as of last quarter,” he said and hopes to grow it next year, despite the economic crisis.

He continues: “We haven’t really seen any impact, other than we think we could have grown even more than we have.” Isn’t that the impact? To think that they won’t see a major impact this Q4 and next year is to be delusional, but I think they know that part and have to tow a corporate line publicly….

Updated: Later in the summit, he said the company sees opportunities to buy start-ups for a fraction of what they were asking even six months ago. And tons of them are knocking on MySpace’s door these days, he said. DeWolfe said acquisitions are key and areas would include international markets, building its music offering and developing applications for mobiles.