MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe to step down

by Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh, revolutionmagazine.com 23-Apr-09, 09:39

LONDON - MySpace chief executive and co-founder Chris DeWolfe is to step down, following a management shake-up by parent company News Corp.

New Corp's chief digital officer Jonathan Miller said the decision was a "mutual agreement" and that DeWolfe will continue to serve on the board of MySpace China and will be a strategic advisor to the company. MySpace president and co-founder Tom Anderson is in talks about a new role at News Corp.

DeWolfe and Anderson launched MySpace in 2003, growing the community to 100 million members in the first three years. The site was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for $580 million in 2005.

Recently MySpace has faced tough competition from social networking newcomers Facebook and Bebo. According to Hitwise, MySpace attracted 3.8 per cent of UK social networking traffic last week, while Facebook garnered 40.6 per cent.