Those MySpace rumors we’ve been talking about are very real. A week ago we wrote that MySpace and parent company Fox Interactive Media would layoff hundreds of employees. Today the company is confirming those cuts, saying they’ll “reduce staff by nearly 30%.” We’re updating our layoff tracker to include this information.
A MySpace employee writes to tell us that there is extra security in the building right now, and that managers are being given boxes (presumably to give to employees to pack their stuff). Human resources booked a conference room from 12 – 4 as well.
MySpace has around 1,600 employees, which means 480 or so of them are going to be out of a job by 4 pm. Time to update your resumes. Our guess is another 300 will be gone by end of year.
Press release below:
MYSPACE REDUCES STAFF BY NEARLY 30%
Return to Start-Up Culture a Focus for Company Moving Forward
LOS ANGELES—June 16, 2009—As part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business, MySpace announced today that it will reduce its staff by nearly 30%. This restructuring plan crosses all U.S. divisions of the company and lowers the total number of domestic staff at MySpace to 1,000 employees.
“Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,” said MySpace Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta. “I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product.”
“MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today’s marketplace,” said Jonathan Miller, News Corporation’s CEO of Digital Media and Chief Digital Officer. “I believe this restructuring will help MySpace operate much more effectively both structurally and financially moving forward. I am confident in MySpace’s next phase under the leadership of Owen and his team.”
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About MySpace
MySpace is a technology company connecting people through personal expression, content, and culture. MySpace empowers its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games, and the world’s largest music community. MySpace is a division of News Corporation. (NYSE: NWS – News, NWS.A – News; ASX:NWS – News, NWSLV – News)
you dont understand how happy i am right now
i hate myspace. horrible site.
this is not happy news.
why not, your fine with the newspaper industry losing jobs because of times shifting. Well its shifting to facebook now.
great point. arrington, hes right about the double standard. this doesn’t need to be any more sentimental for you than newspaper layoffs,
myspace downsizing certainly sucks for the people losing their jobs, but i’m pumped that the site as we know it seems to be going down.
i agree it does suck for the people losing jobs
Still, people are losing their jobs. Never a happy thing.
A lot of nice people at MySpace and FIM are hurting today. Could just as well be any company anywhere.
To all my friends who got chopped today:
Just think of not having your good ideas shot down anymore and you’ll start smiling soon enough
ZING! I expect either no response or your comment to be removed for being too logical.
My thoughts exactly (that also includes ZING!).
I think the lady that Arrington hired to boss him used to work there. So it could be a sensitive issue. Maybe we should cut some slack guys.
If you’re a LAMP engineer who just lost their job and wants to join an fbFund company at equity for a few months — please email your resume to workfbfund@gmail.com
Best of luck to our friends at Myspace! Hang in there!
no, this isn’t happy news michael, but when you post a title like myspace ‘executes’ 30% you invite people to make disparaging remarks.
Does this figure include active pedophiles who also served as executives—-allegedly….
yes, it is not happy news. It just a reminder that MySpace already old stuff. People move on and not using MySpace anymore
I’m sad for MySpace. If MySpace goes, that’s the end of an era for a lot of people. Sad day for workers, yes. But really, anyone who DIDN’T think their job was under threat working at MySpace over the past 6 months has got to be living with their head under a rock. Remove the CEO but the lower rungs stay unaffected? Come on. These employees should’ve been actively looking for work elsewhere all of 2009.
At the end of the day, MySpace needs and deserves to survive. If it dies, Facebook becomes the monopoly, the Microsoft of social networking, and when there is no more competition, there is no more innovation.
Also, MySpace is an era, a history, and if it’s years of wall comments and blogs simply vanish into thin 404-error air, that will be a sad, sad day indeed.
poor fellas who are losing their jobs because of the lack of proper VISION of past upper management!
Well I hate the fact i waiting to hear whether or not my loved one will have a job tomorrow. GROW UP and see the bigger picture here.
I am with you my loved one works for myspace to and i am waiting to see if they still have a job or not
If my loved one worked at MySpace I’d have been encouraging them to look for a new job ever since there was a rumour they were replacing their CEO and Facebook was taking over.
My sincere condolences to everyone affected.
Wonder how the employees are planning to take it. If they thought it is “bloated”, they should have thought about this earlier, why in tough times? Also, I think going back to start-up mode is going to help. They’re grown up and they cant deny that and be a start-up again. They have to rise up & act smart and do what is required to gain ground in the web world.
My sincere condolences to everyone affected.
Please keep in mind that as much as you *hate* Myspace, these employees who are getting the pink slip today are just like you and me. They have worked hard, have responsibilities to take care of, bills to pay and families to support. Your opinion is appreciated, but please keep things into perspective and realize that they did not put all their work with a goal to make a terrible website. Management’s vision was skewed (to say the least), and because they failed in comparison to the other social networking sites, these people are now forced to look for another job. Let’s hope that all these terminated employees find new jobs soon in this terrible economy.
Actually, it’s entirely possible that they did NOT work hard. Layoffs (especially in profitable companies – and note that MySpace is only doing this to trim the fat; they are still profitable – this isn’t some money-losing auto company or something) typically shave off starting from the bottom.
If you’ve ever worked on a team with a guy who didn’t pull his weight, that’s the kind of guy who’s probably losing his job here.
Nice try. Not true. We lost a bunch of bright, talented people today. You folks on the outside can babble and make your douchebag jokes all day, but this has sucked today. Show some class.
that last line should be pointed at your CEO, who called MySpace “bloated.” Not exactly respectful to those that he fired.
sweat not… next year it will be facebook’s turn for layoffs. thence twitter. techcrunch will cover all of them…
i agree with arrington
Myspace needs ajax. People dont wait for full page refresh on every action, and other benifits of ajax like rest of content is stable to read through while update. If some action is fast, say commenting, people do that action more often.
Ajax development doesnt need as many people.
A lot of people that lost their jobs today were very hard working. I don’t know why they decided to cut certain areas, but that doesn’t mean that those people worked any less. I hated it there, but I worked my a** off everyday and I had an amazing team of people who were all cut. Despite your hate for the site, we are still people, and we are in a horrible economy and we are scared. Show some respect…Karma is a bitch.
Everyone can use an extra spleen.
This shows the ADD of the internet.
It’s bad news ..woww…
too many firings, too fast. its over kill.
all those affected can build a professional profile on my website. maybe if word got out the ousted have mygrated to Us it can be a catalsyst for a mass migration. soonr or later user networks will become more powerful than corporations and will use the power of social network unions for concessions.
You work for facebook
The worst way to treat your employees! First it was the top management, now it the employees who are bearing the brunt of MySpace’s losses in the market.
MySpace “bloated”? Yes, it is but not in the way the CEO would point it. The management did not know to manage stuff and now guys working there are paying for it. MySpace would never recuperate. They not just skill, but also sense.
only 70% more to go and we will all win
You wouldn’t be saying that if it were your job. You may not like the site, but let’s not celebrate hundreds of people losing their jobs.
I hope you lose your job too then, because apparently you haven’t even thought about the people getting fired, just that the company will do worse. How selfish… and lame.
‘only 70% more to go and we will all win’
LMAO!
It’s sad they are loosing jobs, but Myspace made a lot of mistakes, their site is messy, un-functional, and overloaded with content, that’s not easy to find, not to mention the never ending spam.
But Myspace will always be iconic and historic piece of social networking history, hats off to that.
It’s funny to see how myspace is characterized as being messing and not easy to find.
I guess it depends on the age range. My guess… IMHO is that teens don’t find it to be an annoyance as much as 25 to 40 do.
I’m in my 20’s and sure facebook is nice in terms of what it was designed to do… myspace wasn’t designed to do the same stuff fb was designed to do.
There are tradeoffs and until a week ago… myspace still held the lead in traffic.
In other news, MySpace experienced a 30% drop in users of the Social Networking site…
They aint taking me alive!
How soon until we hear the same news about Facebook ? or Twitter ?
We… won’t.
Oh yes we will…in due time my friend.
Agreed. This only shows how the industry goes in cycles. To deny that it won’t eventually happen is plain ignorance.
It will probably happen, but I doubt this year.
Facebook and Twitter have a lot of momentum at the moment and will probably see them through at least 2009. But, yes… it will happen eventually.
Good luck to everyone who lost their jobs today. I’ve been on both sides of the fence and it’s not fun either way.
But, remember, it’s also an opportunity… make the most of it.
no way! Facebook will be around forever! Like Friendster! And MySpace! And Geocities!
Look, you short-attention-span-having-twits, you all loved friendster six years ago, myspace three years ago, and facebook today. Something will come along and replace facebook and you’ll all talk about how much you hate facebook and people who did nothing to deserve your ire will lose their jobs and you’ll gloat like the beasts you are.
MySpace blew the door open on what constitutes a social network site. The people there have done nothing but provide you with hours of entertainment and social contact for free. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
we wont hear about facebook
twitter, give it a few months
When twitter hurts I will be celebrating!
as for News Corp. a lot of people like to pick on it because they think they understand it’s politics. They really don’t understand a thing. SKY satellite service really does reflect the local politics of wherever they go. Most Americans who watch FOX NEWS would be horrified by the news produced by SKY in Great Britain. these companies are all about the bottom line.
Oh no! Who’s going to fix all the “omg pc4pc” bulletins when they go down now?
Those poor teenage girls.
these are people we’re talking about. please remember that. some have families, all have needs.
like the site or hate the site… just have some respect for the lives that are affected by this.
kthxbai
These are peoples jobs. Not a website you are talking about. Karma to you – your time will come. Come sit here among tears and write what you just wrote again.
Ok “Basement Dad” is you bio: “We are notorious internet terrorists and hackers on steroids. ”
Really ? I grew up with terrorists in my country and let me tell you: they were the ones who ended up gone. Not the people working hard to build the infrastructure for society.
big number of people being let go. wow! imho this begins a death spiral for MySpace, one that puts them in a much different place one year from now.
the next geocities
haha
Well, I can only say that the basementdad comes across as a real jerk. He(she?) must be working for Fecebook or Twitter. Nothing wrong with that, but gloating at people being laid off is so low! I am sure this will come back and bite you in the ass!
News flash! The Internet is a dynamic environment and always changing. We all have sites we like and dislike. Many promising sites have come and gone. Some disappeared completely and others found their niche. MySpace is too big to completely disappear. They will probably focus more narrowly on things like music and young teens, but will still be around for a while. My 2c.
fortunately myspace is not chinese.
Also: job cuts suck, but let’s face it – MySpace dug its own grave (rather, set a low ceiling) in a lot of ways, whether actively by doing stupid things to cater to markets that have little relative return, or passively by not being smart and ahead of the game like other social networks.
Always sad to see people losing their jobs, particularly during a tough economic time. Still, have to respect Owen’s straight-forward assessment of why it needs to be done, and this did need to be done for the site to thrive.
Karma is a fickle bitch, and alas, this industry trend will not end here…..
Sad news for MySpace, the US Economy and Social Networking as a whole. Best wishes to all sacked FIM/MySpacers.
What about the poor people that will be out of work. They have families to support show some love for these peeps!
It could save us all ….
Its right in front of us you just Don’t Know about it Yet http://www.maki...incomeyours.com
It’s a wonder no one is talking about the rest of FIM. Bloated IGN, I’m looking at you.
may be Facebook gonna need more people to hire
I hate it when people lose jobs. This sucks.
I know a lot of us hate myspace (myself included) but it’s still never nice to hear about so many being laid off. Here’s hoping they get back on their feet soon.
Say the financial situation improves at MySpace. Will the cut employees be considered first if they hire again?
Whateverspace.
MySpace has been doing nothing to preserve their lead nor to generate revenue.
All visionaries have exited stage left. Operators have moved in and are cutting the fat.
With little or no innovation from MySpace in the last year and outsourcing their classifieds (perhaps a huge revenue maker) they have no need for Web developers or engineers….
Simply, No Innovation = Twitter and FB eat your lunch.
They are going to try to position themselves as a Media company….but we all know what happened to Yahoo when Terry Semel tried to do that. Basically you become a huge commercial….and are a bitch to TV and Hollywood and the RIAA.
Basically, unless MySpace can innovate, they have no need for Engineers….or Product Managers…or Project Managers…except for Media Development and custom Content around their new “Media” strategy.
turns to cnn now
You just, but… http://money.cn...yoffs/index.htm
They executed 30% of their staff?? Omg! Is Robespierre head of their HR?
It stinks, but it was only a matter of time really. The site’s traffic and popularity have dropped quite a bit since its heyday.
A really painful, but necessary decision
Wishing all the best to all those here locally losing their job today, hang in there.
Oh boo hoo. Yeah, it definitely sucks for those people out of work but that is life, folks. When your company’s product sucks and is losing market share to a superior product, then you really should have seen it coming.
internet is overvalued. who will be next? imeem?
it’s a matter of time before even twitter is in trouble.
This is horrible news.
I wrote a post titled Job Search Tips: What I Should Have Done In The First 30 Days, based on my failed job search and what I really should have done – hope it helps some of these hundreds of ex-MySpacers….
Then you can tell everyone you were first to think of that too…
Is anyone doing any work at My space today??!!
does responding to comments count as work?
My wife is, for one. And, thankfully, she’s still on-board.
I think what many posters here aren’t grasping is that these layoffs have just as much to do with reduced ad buys as it does with MySpace’s fall from popularity.
Unlike Facebook, MySpace has had a highly profitable ad-based revenue model for several years, and they’ve been hard-hit by a sharp decrease in ad buys – particularly from the Automotive, which is a cash cow for any medium, be it Print, TV or Terrestrial Radio.
Granted, MySpace hasn’t innovated, and a visit to their site sometimes feels like you’re stepping back 5 years in time. But the real story behind these massive layoffs has been a precipitous drop in ad revenues – which puts them in the same boat as the TV Networks, Periodicals, ClearChannel, Outdoor Advertisment, Etc. – All of which find themselves struggling to survive with a drastically reduced pool of ad buys.
So, much as I understand some of the gloating, we also have to realize that this signals an overall devaluation of the internet as a viable medium for marketing-based revenue models – And that spells trouble down the road for Facebook, Twitter and everybody else as pressure to convert eyeballs into dollars grows stronger.
As web professionals, our livelihood depends upon the internet being able to function as a fiscally attractive medium. Even if you’re not on-board with MySpace, the mass of unemployed developers, engineers and project managers lowers the tide industry-wide, and that’s something that should concern us all – regardless of how we view MySpace.
“Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product.”
How can he say that with a straight face?
Ex-MySpacer here–now at a new internet venture. Sorry to hear this news. Really good people there. If any dev or product folks are looking for their next gig, please send me an email. I’ll try and help you out here or with leads.
Good luck MySpacers and FIMites.
Well, thanks for the offer. I will certainly be sending you an email. Just as soon as I find out our email address which has to be hidden somewhere in your comment.
My bad: ephojay@gmail.com
Well,
It is unfourtunate that the employees are losing their jobs. If DeWolfe and company spent more time focusing on building products that people wanted, rather than fluffing up their overly inflated egos…and building an headcount empire..things would be a bit different now.
They will be like Geocities in 5yrs.
I used to work for this company, I quit 2 months ago, I saw this coming, and not from inside info but by the management and way they run things over there… Horrible company to work for, I just feel sorry for all the people stuck there during these times.
Some advice for the employees still there – BAIL!
Yes it is funny they keep laying off employees while ignored the true problems are caused by the managers. And they are the ones leading the company to the failure. The employees can only follow.
Better chop the problematic managers, employees will automatically follow under the right management.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Get rid of the VP’s and useless dept heads. Why does a Co. need Vp and then SVP and EVP titles? Seems like Myspace has to many Chiefs and not enough Indians.
No shit, my dept has a VP, a Global VP, a manager, and 3 supervisors. All for about 16 people.
As part of the 70% still at MySpace, I have to say I am very sad about the way this happened. MySpace is struggling, and needs substantial change. Nobody disagrees with that.
But our new executive staff came in and started making changes without clear direction and much more importantly, without figuring out what’s really broken within the organization.
They used a flawed roll-up of information filtered through some of the middle management that is the worst of the problem. And from that, decided what features need attention and which people are necessary to keep those features moving ahead.
MySpace could be so much, but the existing (largely remaining) middle management are ensuring that real change is not happening within the organization. I survived by keeping my head down and “going with the flow” when many of the highly qualified and passionate people pressing for change that would make a difference, were ousted today. That was clearly a move by the current middle-tier management to select people to stay that would not surface the problems with leadership.
I started a job search a few weeks ago and will step it up now. It has been frustrating working here for three years and this move makes it clear that all my hope for a real turnaround was foolish.
I’m very sorry for all my co-workers who lost their jobs today. There had been several rounds of performance-based terminations in the past few months. As a result, I don’t know of a single person terminated today that wasn’t making a very strong contribution. Their next employers will be very lucky to have them.
I happen to think its ironic that some of the higher ups came from Yahoo…That was brilliant. Hire people who sunk another ship already. Sorry…I am a little bitter right now.
Yes it is actually the management leading to the failure of the company. I am not sure why they think it is the problem of the employees. Employees simply follow their manager.
Chop of the problematic managers, the employees will automatically follow with the right management.
I smell BAILOUT!
Now we are not open yet until June 22,2009 internet board will come and inspection if it pass we will open the next day can you ask for BAILOUT to reduce rent for May & June we are not open to the public yet can we just pay them the base rent for those 2 month we try to finish construction but the township they are tricky please understand for all that mater.
Sucks, but sh** happens! TC, what is the current count of people laid off now during this recession?
This is sad to hear when people loses there jobs.
I hope myspace can turn it around, but with Facebook leading the way. I am not to sure yet.
everyone is crying
I’ve known this would happen a year ago when myspace is hiring like wild fire on the dry grass
Always feel bad when people get let go.
It is a very different feeling from the dot com crash. This time it is hitting across industrys.
Does anyone still really think that Zuckerberg has the chops to help Facebook create some magic elixir that will allow it to avoid the same fate as its Friendster and MySpace peers?
Facebook’s biggest shot at monetization has been to sell-out, and that train left the multi-billion dollar station last year.
I think that MySpace’s problems have more to do with demographics than a lack of innovation though, so it’s possible that Facebook will strike the right balance and stay perma-sticky.
Well, it was bound to happen. Since MyScape has been loosing its foothold to Facebook they were bound to make some cuts.
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER BLOGNALISM
ACTION #1: TC GET RID OF MG Siegler!!
Did the gun leave any marks on your forehead when the bad guys forced you to read all of MG’s articles?
Please let the finale be jeff berman and two of his three ‘charlie’s angels’ for good measure. She should have left with DeWolfe, but that would mean she has some capacity for loyalty and she does not.
Amen, but I doubt it. The amount of people there as directors/VPs/SVPs/etc who know NOTHING is astounding.
I’m kind of relieved to be off the sinking ship, as hard as that is to say with no money coming in.
- one of the 30%
The only way Myspace can thrive again is to form a company culture —- a culture that values technology and innovation.
Sad for those layoffs — a lot of families get affected.
“that managers are being given boxes (presumably to give to employees to pack their stuff)”
– but it is really the managers who needs to go…if what they have done to deteriote the company has ever been exposed. No kidding there is written evidence some of them are hurting the company, and employees as well…
I’ve seen people get laid off left and right today. And MySpace innovate? Never! They’ll keep copying Facebook and Twitter to keep up.
Yeah, I think it’s funny that they don’t bother to let us know about the layoffs until the morning of. The play all the employees around.
the new management kept us in the dark more than the old corrupt one…irony.
I personally think Myspace is filled with mediocre level (some even entry level) engineers.
Guess what? Every large internet company is filled with mediocre and entry level engineers as well. If you think Google is made up of 10,000 genius engineers, you’ve got a lot to learn.
this is true, but the good engineers don’t have a voice in an ad/media company. Engineers that want to do big things and innovate and have passion that fight to do things better or even right don’t belong at myspace. One of the biggest issues i’ve seen, is that engineers that don’t fall in line or into submission at myspace, are basically trouble and are all of the sudden low performers.
Actually, you’re wrong. MySpace has GREAT engineers, but they are mismanaged. The main problem is actually on the product side, and is primarily the lack of process and standards that should have been put in place at an early point when the company started to grow. Lack of proper, mature management led to a culture of low product standards. But we see signs that things are looking up.
One thing that drives me crazy is that people need to keep in mind the Friendster had no ground to stand on when they went under. They were never profitable, and were never even UP long enough to gain serious momentum.
MySpace has been a major player for along time, and though it’s facing tough times, has generated TONS of revenue over the last few years. MySpace may not be able to overtake Facebook and become #1 again, but the measure of a “comeback” is subjective.
I think if MySpace does a few things right and sharpens their focus, it can stop the bleeding, regain some momentum and stand firm as one of the top sites on the Internet. How many .coms are in the top 10, top 20, hell even top 50?
“I think if MySpace does a few things right and sharpens their focus”
I quite agree here. I really think MySpace tried to do too much, and forgot about some of it’s original products. Such as forums. (idk if any one wants a disclosure on a comment but I am one of about 32 users that voluntarily moderate MySpace’s forums.) They’ve had forums since… what? Within the first year they launched? For about 3 years, they left them alone (ask @basementdad up there. If that Anon has been in /b/ long enough, they remember flooding MS forums with gay/scat porn.) No updates, no patches, no dealing with the problems that system had. Finally in 2007 they revamp them, get a whole bunch of people on a “Forum Team” and start caring and interacting with the product. Here we are 2009, and there’s no public support from MS for their forums anymore. We have just two guys now that even bother with the moderators. (And man, every time I see MySpace employee cuts, I worry it’s gonna be one of them.)
Am I saying the forums are going to be their holy grail now? No way. It’s most likely MySpace Music, which also seemed to be forgotten for quite some time.
Timmy, you’re funny!
So I am a former myspace employee.
They really needed to get rid of the moronic management.
Guess Van Nothing will stop at nothing to get back at facebook.
The really needed to get rid of everyone with a manager title and above.
Well whatever. I made it over the wall.