MySpace sheds up to 45 jobs

by Staff, Brand Republic 11-May-09, 09:25

NEW YORK - Social networking site MySpace is reported to have axed as many as 45 staff in the past week, according to reports.

TechCrunch quotes sources close to the company saying that the exact figure may be smaller than 45, but that MySpace has definitely laid off a significant number of staff.

The blog reports that MySpace has refused to comment on the cuts, but indications are that vacancies will not be filled.

The latest job losses follow reports last July that MySpace had laid off as much as 5% of its workforce, but the News Corporation-owned company later said that the cuts were performance based and amounted to less than 5% of the company.

The redundancies also come on the heels of the departure of MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson who are stepping down before their contracts end later this year.

The pair have been replaced by former Facebook executive, Owen Van Natta, as chief executive officer. Van Natta will report directly to Jonathan Miller, News Corp's CEO of digital media and chief digital officer.

DeWolfe is to continue to serve on the board of MySpace China and will be a strategic advisor to News Corp, while his co-founder Anderson is in talks with Miller about assuming a new role with the media giant.

The cuts at MySpace follow other large cuts at Yahoo! which is axing around 600 posts. That comes on top of the 10% reduction in staff made at the end of last year.