MySpace and its employees may be running out of time.
During a recent investor call, parent company News Corp. told investors and analysts that the struggling social networking site had better shape up, or else. "The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable," president and COO Chase Cary said.
And the deadline that News Corp. is setting is measured in quarters, not years, he added.
Last year, the site announced that would slash about 40% of MySpace's global workforce -- 750 people. IT workers were put on the chopping block, including senior level executives, such as the head of IT in the U.K., who was laid off. All in all, 30% of its U.S. staff has been let go in the last 18 months.
When News Corp. bought the site in 2005 for $580 million, it was expecting big things. But the growth of Facebook and Twitter dampened expectations quickly. Currently, MySpace has 100 million users worldwide, while Facebook has 500 million, and Twitter has 175 million.
To raise those numbers, MySpace unveiled a new site last week, which is focused on entertainment and music.
But given how much momentum its rivals have, going back to the go-go growth days of MySpace could be a tough slog. If the latest changes don't start driving up users numbers -- and quickly -- techies at the company may want to start updating their LinkedIn profiles.
(Disclosure: News Corp. is parent to Dow Jones which owns and operates FINS.com.)
Write to Shareen Pathak
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