MySpace to axe two-thirds of non-US staff, but Sydney remains as regional hub
MySpace has announced a major shake-up of its operations which will see it axe two thirds of its non-US staff and close at least four international offices, but leave Sydney as one of three regional hubs.
In a statement, the News Corp-owned company said: “The proposed restructuring plan, which is subject to consultation with international employees in some countries, would apply to all international divisions of the company, reducing MySpace’s international staff from 450 employees to approximately 150 employees and closing at least four of its offices outside the United States.
It added: “Upon completion of the proposed plan, London, Berlin, and Sydney would become the primary regional hubs for MySpace’s international operations. Under the proposed plan, MySpace would place all existing offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain under review for possible restructure.”
MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said: “As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions.”
In Australia, Fox Interactive media which includes MySpace, has around 60 staff. The Australian office reports to London-based Aussie Rebekah Horne, who also heads up MySpace UK and Europe.
A spokesman told Mumbrella: “I hope you understand that this is a very tough time – these are people’s lives and unfortunately we can’t go beyond the release right now. We are not going beyond the release to discuss specific proposed restructuring territory by territory or office by office.”
Last week the company said that it was laying off a third of its “bloated” US staff.
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MySpace laying off a third of its ‘bloated’ staff? What about the staff that aren’t bloated … and how do they decided which one-in-three of the bloated staff have to go? Is this some on-line form of The Biggest Loser MySpace-style?
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Have it on good advice that a small number were cleared out from its offices today with more to come !
Give it 3 months and Facebook will see consecutive months decline in its numbers . . . . its the nature of the beast.
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