News Corp. late Wednesday evening announced a major shake-up in the MySpace executive ranks. With seemingly little warning, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta has stepped down after only seven months at the helm of the struggling social-networking site.
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Owen took on an incredible challenge in working to refocus and revitalize MySpace, and the business has shown very positive signs recently as a result of his dedicated work, said Jon Miller, News Corp.’s chairman and CEO of digital media.
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However, in talking to Owen about his priorities both personally and professionally going forward, we both agreed that it was best for him to step down at this time, Miller said. I want to thank Owen for all of his efforts.
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A Van Natta Cover-Up?
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That’s the public story. Behind the scenes, the rumor mill points to something much more dramatic. Reported tensions between Van Natta and Miller apparently came to a head on Wednesday, ending with Miller firing the former Facebook executive charged with reviving MySpace.
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What happened? My sense from third-party reports is that there are some politics involved between Van Natta and his boss Jon Miller, who hired the guys who are now going to run MySpace, said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. There’s also the decline of MySpace and the challenges of figuring out MySpace’s identity in Facebook’s shadow.
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The guys who are now going to run MySpace are Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn. The duo will serve as co-presidents, reporting to Miller. Van Natta, Jones and Hirschhorn joined MySpace in April 2009. Until yesterday, Jones and Hirschhorn were serving as COO and chief product officer, respectively.
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Although Miller positioned Van Natta’s departure as a mutual agreement, the grapevine insists the former Facebooker was flat-out fired. Published reports suggest Van Natta did not get along with Miller, Jones or Hirschhorn, and…