MySpace announces yet more lay-offs

MySpace has announced it’s shedding two thirds of staff outside the US, a move that will see 300 employees laid off.

“Today, we are announcing the next step in our overall restructuring effort – a proposal to streamline our operations abroad,” said MySpace boss, Owen Van Natta, in a leaked email to employees.

Last week the social-networking company announced job losses of 30% in the US, as part of an attempt to return to a start-up culture and compete with rival Facebook.

“Similar to our domestic restructuring, our international plan is designed to rein in growth in staff and expenses that we cannot sustain,” the email explains.

“Our proposal would reduce MySpace’s international staff from 450 employees to approximately 150 employees and close at least four of our offices outside the United States.”

After the redundancies, London, Berlin, and Sydney will be the main hubs for the firm, partly because of the large number of users in those markets.

“As with the domestic changes we made last week, these proposed international reductions and eliminations will be extremely challenging – professionally and personally. These are difficult decisions and they are essential to our financial well-being and the re-establishment of our overall growth strategy,” explained Van Natta.

In the email Van Natta conceded that the company had spread itself too thinly by trying to break into international markets, and had been left with too many offices around the world, creating inefficiency in the business.

“The last two weeks have been tough for everyone. The employees who leave us played an important role in the successes of MySpace in these international markets, and I thank them for their hard and dedicated work,” he said.