Uh oh, things aren’t looking too good in Myspace land. Only months after re-launching the site as effectively a music hosting site which is a gateway to other social networking platforms, several sources intimate with the situation suggest that the company is about to axe up to half its 1,100 worldwide employees.
Not long after owner News Corporation conceded that time was running out for the internet antique to start turning a buck it seems that plans are already on the table for its future. One of the most drastic plans appears to be shutting down the site altogether, although the most realistic and face saving option for News Corp – which paid $580 million for the site in 2005 – is to sell it.
Interestingly, one of the most prominent suitors looking to buy the site and its internet tumbleweeds appears to be Facebook game-maker Zynga, who created one of the world’s greatest time wasting Facebook applications, Farmville. Furthermore, the Chief Operating Officer of Zynga, Owen Van Natta, used to be CEO of Myspace.
However, most pundits predict that the most likely outcome at this stage is for Myspace to be sold to a private equity company who will still be faced with the problem one of the most powerful businessmen in the world, Rupert Murdoch, is still grappling with – how do you make decent money out of the internet?
