OWEN van Natta, the former Facebook executive brought in to revive News Corp’s MySpace social-networking unit, will step down after less than a year.
Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, executives who joined the company at about the same time as Van Natta, will assume his responsibilities as co- presidents, New York-based News Corp said late on Wednesday. The announcement took the market by surprise.
Technology market watchers said yesterday the move was the outcome of a power struggle between Van Natta and Fox Interactive Media CEO Jon Miller.
Miller was said to have dispensed with Van Natta earlier on Wednesday. Van Natta had in his year at MySpace stopped users moving away to other social networks, but was still having a hard time attracting new members, reports said yesterday.
Van Natta was named CEO in April last year to rejuvenate MySpace.
Earlier that month, News Corp hired former AOL chief Miller to oversee its digital operations.
“In talking to Owen about his priorities both personally and professionally … we both agreed that it was best for him to step down at this time,” Miller said.
Last year Facebook, with 112- million US users in December, passed MySpace as the top social- networking site in the US.
Shares News Corp, which is controlled by chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, fell 30c to 12,61 after the news in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. It had recovered to 13,70 yesterday morning.
MySpace, based in Beverly Hills, California, faces the expiry in June of a 900m, multiyear advertising partnership with Google. Van Natta, who had said MySpace’s health did not hinge on the advertising deal, steered away from direct competition with Facebook, seeking to make the company a hub for music, games and other entertainment.
MySpace bought the digital music services iLike and imeem while he was CEO.
MySpace announced its hiring of Hirschhorn as chief operating officer and Jones as chief product officer three days after Van Natta was appointed CEO.
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