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June 23, 2009 5:08 AM PDT

MySpace slashing two-thirds of international staff

by Natalie Weinstein

Social-networking giant MySpace is cutting 300 international jobs--two-thirds of its workforce outside the United States.

The company, which already announced a 30 percent layoff in the States last week, said on Tuesday that it will reduce its overseas staff from 450 to 150 employees and close at least four foreign offices. MySpace also announced proposed restructuring that will narrow its international focus to a "smaller number of territories."

"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," CEO Owen Van Natta said in a statement.

As part of the restructuring, London, Berlin, and Sydney will become the "primary regional hubs" for the company's overseas business. "All existing offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain (are) under review for possible restructure," MySpace said.

The company added that MySpace China, which it described as a "locally owned, operated, and managed company," and MySpace's joint venture in Japan won't be affected by the restructuring.

Combining both layoffs, MySpace's is cutting its total workforce from about 1,950 to 1,150--or by about 41 percent.

Natalie Weinstein is an associate editor who works out of Austin, Texas. She spent a decade as a reporter and editor in the newspaper industry before joining the CNET News staff in 2000. E-mail Natalie.
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by sherpadude June 23, 2009 6:04 AM PDT
why not just get the message the interface is extremely poor and try to be more like facebook? There are so many ways to leverage the relationships that they have into new and different types of applications and opportunities yet they seem content to just continue to let allow pages with music blasting and dizzying wallpapers to persist.
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by daviddohoney June 23, 2009 7:28 AM PDT
I suppose the CEO needs another bonus.
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by Mike+1 June 23, 2009 8:21 AM PDT
Myspace is soooo last week in fact that it was over last year, but someone forgot to tell them!
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by ASROSS June 23, 2009 9:09 AM PDT
MySpace UI = Impenetrable
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by abcd9009 June 23, 2009 10:47 AM PDT
People still use MySpace? I blame Murdoch for their decent. Facebook is still innovative because it's still not bought out. Same goes for Twitter. The moment companies are bought out by giants, all the higher level people think of is bonus and thinking the old fashion way of straight away making money without providing any benefit for people to stay.
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by ca5ter June 23, 2009 2:24 PM PDT
ha, ha
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by monkeyfun14 June 23, 2009 4:21 PM PDT
Myspace = Poor UI slow page loads and unpredictability.
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by servermaker June 23, 2009 5:12 PM PDT
Probably should have built on IIS like Facebook : - O
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