For the first time, Facebook Inc. passed MySpace in terms
of U.S. visitors for a month. ComScore Inc. said Facebook's users almost doubled from a year earlier, while MySpace lost 5%. It's a figure News Corp.'s (NYSE:NWS) chief digital officer Jonathan Miller must be very familiar with. However, he's no doubt familiar with the fact that MySpace continues to generate hundreds of millions dollars more in revenue than Facebook.
Miller, who joined News Corp. in March, has been
poaching top talent from AOL LLC and even
grabbed Facebook's Owen Van Natta as CEO for MySpace. But while he's stacking
the executive deck, a slimmer MySpace is what he's eying. The social network will lose about 30% of its staff, or about 420 people,
across all its U.S. divisions.
Miller said in a statement, "MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today's marketplace." Van Natta added, "Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product."
Along with Facebook threatening, Palo Alto,Calif.'s MySpace is also facing the end of a three-year, $900 million search/ad deal it has with Internet search giant Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). -
Baz HiralalGo to the storySee the MySpace announcement
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