Okay Geek Farm
Myspace lays off 500 - half of its employees
Ricardo Trejo
Facebook is the number one visted site in the world, Mark Zuckerberg is Time’s Person of the Year, and it looks like the Social Network is a shoein for Best Film at the Academy Awards. Yeah, things didn’t turn out so well for the original social network, Myspace. And with reports that they’ve just laid off about 50% of their employees it’s hard to see them rising from their own ashes.
Myspace CEO, Mike Jones, had this to say in his formal announcement:
Today Myspace is implementing a significant organizational restructuring that will result in a 47 percent staff reduction across all divisions globally and impact about 500 employees. 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.
The at-one-time social network giant is hoping that trimming the fat from its sides will help alleviate some of its otherwise useless weight (content) and spike up webtraffic, something it’s been losing at a steady and rapid pace for months now.
Sporting a new logo and site direction, Myspace seems ready to accept its new role in a post-Myspace world, realizing what it is and what it isn’t; a site that can accompany Facebook and become a destination for everything that Facebook isn’t, entertainment and media — something it’s been doing greatly for years.
But our hats go off to those who’ve lost their jobs, casualties of the social network war in which Facebook has already convicingly won, and continues to win well after the battle’s been over.
Empty Office photo by moofbong - Flickr
