Digital Media

It's official: News Corp. has named former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta as MySpace's CEO, following reports on Thursday that an announcement was imminent. Van Natta's appointment is "effective immediately," a release from MySpace said.

Van Natta succeeds Chris DeWolfe, who stepped down from the post earlier this week, reportedly at the request of newly appointed News Corp. digital czar Jonathan Miller. DeWolfe will remain on the company's board.

"I'm thrilled to have the privilege to pilot MySpace in what is sure to be an incredibly exciting and rewarding next chapter for the business," Van Natta said in a statement. "I feel honored to build upon the immeasurable achievements of the MySpace founders and look forward to working with Jon and the MySpace team to meet the challenges and make the most of the opportunities before us."

Van Natta served as chief operating officer of Facebook before he was shifted--some would say demoted--to the position of chief revenue officer and vice president of operations. He left in February 2008 and later took the CEO position at social music start-up Playlist.

John Sykes, a Playlist board member and one of the original MTV co-founders, will take over Van Natta's CEO role there. Van Natta will continue to be an adviser to the start-up--which is interesting, since it technically competes with the MySpace Music service.

"Owen combines a deep understanding of social networking, a keen business sense, and the operational experience to guide MySpace through its next phase of growth. I'm confident his leadership will be an invaluable asset," Miller said in a statement. "I plan to work closely with Owen to shape our long-term vision around this vibrant community that already attracts more than 130 million users worldwide."

Facebook, Van Natta's old employer, has eclipsed MySpace in worldwide traffic with now more than 200 million active users.

Van Natta's a proven dealmaker. During his tenure as chief revenue officer, Facebook chalked up that whopping $240 million investment from Microsoft. But here's where he might be lacking: entertainment industry cred. With a background at Amazon, Facebook, and several tech start-ups, Van Natta--who will be based in Los Angeles at MySpace's headquarters--probably isn't on the Hollywood circuit. MySpace needs those entertainment connections, some of which come naturally with its News Corp. ownership, because it has a much sunnier future as a pop-culture hub than a social-networking tool.

That said, it's a good first sign that under Van Natta's watch, Playlist started inking deals with major record labels in order to stave off its legal troubles.

This post was expanded at 10:35 a.m. PT.

We can expect an announcement very soon that Owen Van Natta will be replacing Chris DeWolfe as CEO of MySpace, All Things Digital reported on Thursday afternoon.

Considering that AllThingsD's Kara Swisher has a very good track record of knowing Van Natta's whereabouts, we're going to take this one as solid. The announcement could come as early as Friday, Swisher wrote, and though there's no word on timing, we're guessing that it'll either be after the market closes or possibly held off until Monday.

Van Natta rose to the tech world's upper ranks as chief operating officer of Facebook, a position he took after a stint at Amazon.com. He left just more than a year ago, either because of internal disputes with CEO Mark Zuckerberg or because he saw no chance that he'd earn the top spot himself anytime soon (or both). He was then reportedly in the running for the head job at MySpace's new music service and apparently withdrew his candidacy.

Right now, he's the CEO of Project Playlist, one of the many "social music" start-ups that is technically a competitor to MySpace Music, and he has been inking deals with record labels to keep away its persistent legal problems.

DeWolfe's departure from MySpace was announced earlier this week as part of a management shake-up that was likely initiated by Jonathan Miller, the new digital boss at MySpace parent company News Corp. There will likely be other departures and new executives, but AllThingsD said they won't be announced quite yet.

Van Natta probably wasn't the only candidate under consideration: there were hints that News Corp. was also looking internally, possibly at sales and marketing executive Jeff Berman.

Either way, MySpace is in need of some fresh ideas, as it continues to slide into second place behind Facebook.

File this one as improbable, but it's interesting that this rumor continues to crop up. Project Playlist, a little known start-up with 9 million monthly visitors, is supposedly kicking the tires on social media site iMeem, according to music industry sources.

The alleged acquiree, iMeem, which has 20 million monthly visitors, denied the rumors are true. "Project Playlist buying us is like us buying Apple. This is just not accurate," said Matt Graves, iMeem's spokesman and a longtime straight shooter.

So why is this acquisition scenario still being passed around the music industry?

Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Project Playlist, a company that provides an embeddable music player used at MySpace and Facebook, is primarily known for being accused last April of copyright violations in a lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America.

More recently, the company named Owen Van Natta, Facebook's former chief revenue officer, as CEO. Van Natta is also an investor in the company. The company also recently raised an additional round of funding.

So did the stirrings about an acquisition come from simple wishful thinking on the part of Project Playlist or is Van Natta looking to get out of the RIAA lawsuit by buying a music service with licensing agreements in place?

MySpace Music is getting closer to finally finding a CEO.

Peter Kafka at the blog All Things Digital is reporting that negotiations between MySpace Music and Courtney Holt, an MTV executive, are all but finished. Kafka writes: "At this point there doesn't seem to be anything left beyond 'i'-dotting and 't'-crossing."

Last week, we reported that MySpace Music offered Holt the vacant CEO job. On Tuesday, I reported that Owen Van Natta was a top candidate until bowing out relatively late in the process.

The newly launched music service is hosting a party in San Francisco on Thursday. Will this be Holt's coming-out party?

Two months ago, MySpace Music appeared ready to fill its CEO position. The new music service had whittled down the candidates to Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook executive, and Andy Schuon, a longtime music industry insider.

So how did MTV executive Courtney Holt get the job offer? As first reported by CNET News last week, Holt was offered the job to help operate what some expect will be the most significant iTunes challenger to come along in awhile. According to music industry sources, Holt has yet to accept the job as he and MySpace Music continue to wrap up negotiations. A MySpace Music representative didn't respond to an interview request.

Leading up to Holt's offer, Van Natta, who announced his departure from Facebook in February, pulled out of the running late in the process, said two sources with knowledge of the negotiations. According to them, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe had favored Van Natta over Schuon.

MySpace Music has been widely criticized for taking so long to name a chief. For now, DeWolfe and his MySpace team continue to oversee the service.

Last week, TechCrunch reported that Van Natta was no longer a candidate and offered no explanation as to why. The blog did suggest that some within MySpace's management may have been discouraged by some of Van Natta's side deals. Even as Van Natta was interviewing for the job he was trying to encourage MySpace to buy Project Playlist, a fledgling music service with a copyright lawsuit hanging over its head that Van Natta has a stake in, according to the blog.

Van Natta was unavailable to comment so we don't know for sure why he pulled out. What is known is that the job has some unappealing elements.

One former candidate told me the MySpace Music CEO will be required to answer to another CEO, DeWolfe. The source added that the compensation being offered was mediocre. There's also the question of Facebook's growing dominance over MySpace.