Myspace has announced that it is slashing its global workforce by almost half, with 47 per cent of employees to be given the arse from its global team of around 1,000 as part of a ‘global restructure’. CEO Mike Jones said in a statement that “Today’s tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability. The new organisational structure will enable us to move more nimbly, develop products more quickly, and attain more flexibility on the financial side.”
Jones also said the restructuring would “result in a 47 per cent staff reduction across all divisions globally and impact about 500 employees”. The website, in spite of a relaunch as a social media platform in October, has long been overtaken by Facebook. Many industry pundits reckon that owner News Corp, which paid $580 million for it in 2005, is slashing costs in anticipation of a sale.
CEO Jones’ statement remained upbeat about the company’s prospects, saying “With our recent relaunch as an entertainment destination for Gen Y, we introduced a much tighter focus, a significantly streamlined product and an updated technology platform. While it’s still early days, the new MySpace is trending positively and the good news is we have already seen an uptick in returning and new users,” Jones said.
“We have already seen a rise of four per cent in mobile users just between November to December, now totalling over 22 million,” he said, arguing in typical business double speak that the axing of so many jobs was “purely driven by issues related to our legacy business, and in no way reflect the performance of the new product.”
It is unclear as to the number of Australian staff who will receive the boot but the company is believed to be looking at outsourcing its ad sales and content management system.
