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MySpace to cut 'bloated' staff by 30%

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By RYAN NAKASHIMA

The Associated Press

Published: June 17, 2009

LOS ANGELES - MySpace said Tuesday it is cutting nearly 30 percent of its work force in a bid to become more efficient, bringing its staffing level more in line with its more popular rival, Facebook.

The move comes less than two months after MySpace, a unit of News Corp., hired former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta, 39, as its new CEO.

It also comes a day after data from tracking firm comScore show Facebook has caught up with MySpace in monthly U.S. visitors for the first time.

"Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," Van Natta said in a statement.

The cuts amount to about 420 people, bringing MySpace's U.S. staff to 1,000. As of May, Facebook had about 850 employees worldwide.

MySpace's user base has stagnated at about 125 million worldwide users, while Facebook said its usage has doubled to more than 200 million in less than a year.

MySpace, however, generates more revenue, according to Internet research firm eMarketer; it estimates that MySpace generated about $605 million in global ad revenue last year, compared with $250 million for Facebook.

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