His group has had a remarkable track record of uptime, especially considering Facebook’s extreme growth.

Walsh was one of multiple people with the same title, but his departure is notable given his long tenure at the company and the context of other early employees leaving.

To give you a sense of how long Walsh had been at Facebook, he was hired by then-COO Owen Van Natta (who was since CEO of Project Playlist and Myspace and now helps run Zynga) in 2006.

As we understand it, Walsh does not have firm plans for what he’ll do next. Facebook declined to comment.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Zynga, the dominant social-gaming company that seems to spend most of its time raising money, has finished up yet another deal: It has officially brought in Web veteran Owen Van Natta, giving him the title “Executive Vice President of Business Operations.”

Following last month’s hire of Allen & Co. vet David Wehner as CFO, the move will be interpreted as yet another signal that Zynga is moving toward a big-money public offering. Zynga officials won’t comment on the hire. But if they did, they would sidestep the IPO talk and mutter something about hiring a first-class team, etc, etc.

In any case, there’s no argument that this is Van Natta’s third high-profile Web company in two years. He was a top lieutenant for Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook until February 2008, and in 2009 he took over News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace, a job that lasted less than a year. Earlier in his career, he made a name for himself at Amazon (AMZN). He also popped in for a very brief stint as CEO at Project Playlist, a streaming-music company that has just filed for Chapter 11.

Kara Swisher sniffed out the hire last month, when she reported that Van Natta was spending a lot of time at Zynga in an unofficial role. She predicted a formal title in his near future, as Facebook prepared for both an IPO and head-on competition with Google (GOOG), which is moving into gaming and social networking:

Sources said [that] has prompted Pincus to increasingly bring in Van Natta as an adviser to the start-up, focused mostly on strategy and operations.

And, said sources, that could eventually result in a more formal role, such as Van Natta joining Zynga in an official job, like COO. Many say that both have been seriously contemplating such a move in recent weeks.

In fact, at the recent Allen & Co. media confab in Sun Valley, which both attended, Van Natta and Pincus told many of Van Natta’s more substantive advisory role.

A COO job like that would not be a big leap for Van Natta, who was COO and close adviser to Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg at the nascency of the company.

Zynga’s official bio for Van Natta:

Owen Van Natta is the Executive Vice President of Business Operations at Zynga. In this role, he is responsible for the company’s revenue strategy, corporate development, international expansion, and brand. Prior to joining Zynga, Owen was consulting for the Company across a number of critical business functions. Owen is also a member of the Zynga Board.

Owen Van Natta, the prominent Internet executive brought in to overhaul MySpace, has left after less than a year.

News Corp. (NWS), which owns the social network, has replaced the CEO with his former lieutenants, Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who have been named co-presidents.

It is Van Natta’s second consecutive short-tenured job. Prior to MySpace, he ran music start-up Project Playlist, where he stayed for less than six months. Van Natta built his reputation at Facebook and Amazon (AMZN).

A  press release spins this as a mutual decision between Van Natta and Jon Miller, the News Corp. executive who joined the company less than a year ago himself to run digital operations. But that’s going to be a difficult story to sell.

For starters, it’s clear that attempts to turn the social network around are taking much longer than expected, as News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch acknowledged last week during the company’s earnings call.

Last fall, News Corp. disclosed that MySpace and the rest of the company’s digital portfolio were coming up short on their end of a $900 million, three-year search deal with Google (GOOG), which meant News Corp. would receive around $100 million less than originally anticipated.

That may be in part because of changes the new MySpace leadership made to the site’s design, which cut down on some of the page views the old site created. But the shortfall was primarily because the MySpace audience has been migrating to other sites, particularly Facebook, for some time.

MySpace executives have been overhauling the site, mainly under the hood, and rolling out a series of incremental changes in recent weeks. These changes aren’t supposed to win back Facebook users–the company has declared that it’s no longer trying to compete with that site as a social network anymore–but are designed to help it hang on to existing users and establish itself as some sort of entertainment hub.

A tough task under any circumstance. But tensions in the corporate suite didn’t make it easier. Miller hired Van Natta, but the CEO didn’t bring in the two executives directly beneath him; both Jones and Hirschhorn were hired by Miller (along with Murdoch, who signed off on both men).

People who have talked to Van Natta say he has been relatively public about his frustrations at the job in recent weeks. Describing Jones and Hirschhorn as happy campers would be a stretch, too.

But whatever finally prompted the move seems to have come relatively quickly: The MySpace and News Corp. insiders I’ve talked to so far seem taken aback by Van Natta’s departure.

(Full disclosure: News Corp. owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

Here is the official press release from News Corp.:

Owen Van Natta Steps Down as MySpace CEO; ?Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn Elevated to Co-Presidents

Los Angeles, CA, February 10, 2010–News Corporation today announced that Owen Van Natta will step down from his position as MySpace CEO, effective immediately. Mr. Van Natta will be replaced by newly-elevated co-Presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who will each report to Jon Miller, Chairman and CEO of Digital Media for News Corporation.  All three executives joined MySpace in April 2009, with Mr. Jones and Mr. Hirschhorn previously serving as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, respectively.

“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 Corporation’s Chairman and CEO of Digital Media. “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. I want to thank Owen for all of his efforts.”

Mr. Miller continued, “Mike and Jason have demonstrated true leadership in their operational and product guidance, respectively, and I have the utmost confidence in both of them to lead MySpace into its next chapter.”

In a joint statement, Mr. Jones and Mr. Hirschhorn noted:

“We joined MySpace last April with very a specific set of goals in mind, and are anxious to continue working together to make those goals a reality. This business is now pointed in the right direction, and we have a great team of employees that will continue to push MySpace closer to its potential as the place where people go to be discovered and to discover great content.”

Mr. Van Natta commented:

“MySpace is an incredibly unique place and we’ve made real gains in terms of product focus and user experience.  I’m proud of the work we’ve all accomplished together and look forward to watching its continued growth.”

Prior to his role as MySpace COO, Mr. Jones founded and operated several online businesses, including Userplane, a leading provider of tools for online communities such as MySpace. Userplane was acquired in 2006 by AOL, where Jones subsequently served as a senior vice president and focused on social media monetization and also pioneered the distribution of widgets and other technology to Web publishers. He also was founder and CEO of Tsavo Media, an online content and search network developing next-generation publishing platforms and technology services.

Since joining MySpace, Mr. Hirschhorn oversaw all aspects of product development, and previously has led both start-up and established online businesses. He was president of Sling Media, Inc.’s Entertainment Group, which created consumer-driven applications and services for the Slingbox device, and was chief digital officer at MTV Networks, where he oversaw the company’s digital media businesses, products and strategies. Hirschhorn joined MTV Networks following the acquisition of his company, Mischief New Media, which provided interactive services to the entertainment industry.

Brad Garlinghouse’s appointment to a new job at AOL today as its new communications czar is yet another sign of an interesting trend for those keeping score of the comings and goings of top Internet execs.

Garlinghouse came to the Time Warner (TWX) online unit after a year-long break, preceded by six years at Yahoo (YHOO).

As anyone who watches the digital space knows by now, this kind of management musical chairs is common and never-ending.

In fact, borrowing a quote by IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) CEO and chairman Barry Diller from an onstage interview I did with him at the sixth D: All Things Digital conference and switching out Hollywood for Silicon Valley: “[It] is a community that’s so inbred, it’s a wonder the children have any teeth.”

But, given all the movement of late, this insider seat-switching seems more frantic than ever, as allegiances shift, competitors become friends and colleagues become rivals faster than you can tweet.

When he left Yahoo last summer, in fact, the digital chatter was that Garlinghouse would take a job either as a venture capitalist (he had been one once) or helming a start-up (that too, at Dialpad.com).

In fact, sources said, Garlinghouse had been considering two mobile gigs, but opted for helping to try to overhaul a troubled Web giant.

Fixing messes was the impetus of Owen Van Natta, who left a top job at social networking giant Facebook in early 2008 and by the end of the year, headed over to run Project Playlist, a controversial online music-sharing service.

But then he had hightailed it by spring to try his hand at reviving MySpace, as its CEO.

His boss, News Corp. (NWS) digital head Jon Miller, did the same, getting the hook (unfairly to my mind) at AOL several years ago and then creating an investment firm with former MySpace head Ross Levinsohn.

The pair considered being part of a bid to oust Yahoo management in 2008.

Miller’s freedom lasted only until he got an offer that he presumably could not refuse from News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch recently. (Full disclosure: News Corp. owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

The list goes on, chock full of ex-Yahoos, in fact.

Its one-time COO, Dan Rosensweig, left the company in 2006, for example, and joined the well-known private-equity firm, Quadrangle Group.

But, soon enough, he was scooped up by Activision Blizzard (ATVI) to run its Guitar Hero division.

Yahoo Network head Jeff Weiner also departed from the Internet giant, in mid-2008, for a stint at two VC firms.

He landed at LinkedIn, the business-networking service where he was named CEO in late June.

Greg Coleman ran Yahoo ad sales until mid-2007 before taking a job at AOL earlier this year, which he lost after it got new management soon after.

At Yahoo, Coleman sparked with former advertising sales head Wenda Harris Millard, whom he ousted. She went onto Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) and left there this spring for the Media Link consultancy.

Presto! She is now helping MySpace’s Van Natta fix the social networking site’s ad business.

Current Yahoo U.S. advertising head Joanne Bradford actually came from Microsoft last summer, via her own short visit to the troubled ad start-up SpotRunner.

Former Yahoo search techie Qi Lu now runs digital for Microsoft (MSFT), along with a big gang of ex-Yahoo techies he has recruited.

And Scott Moore is even better at the switcheroo. He was at Microsoft running MSN U.S. content, switched to Yahoo as its media poobah, left last year to consider a start-up and then headed back to Microsoft as head of U.S. content this year.

But former Google (GOOG) execs have also been busy shuttling hither and yon, mostly to innovative start-ups.

Of course, many find refuge at Facebook (COO Sheryl Sandberg, PR major domo Elliot Schrage and many more) and Twitter (GC Alexander Macgillivray and COO Dick Costolo).

Recent departures–such as Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, who landed at Accel Partners for now–are also likely to find new homes soon enough.

And, of course, there’s always Garlinghouse’s new boss, former Google ad head Tim Armstrong, who took over at AOL earlier this year.

We’ll skip former Joost CEO and former Cisco (CSCO) exec Mike Volpi (who is now a VC); former Netscape Communications/short-term VC/ex-banker/current-for-now CBS (CBS) digital head Quincy Smith; and Joanna Shields, who has worked at Real Networks (RNWK), Google and Bebo (which was bought by AOL)–for now.

Because, around and around and around it always goes, as you can see in this funny video below, which I posted previously:

[Musical Chair designed by Jacob Mathew.]

That’s the path that Jason Herskowitz has chosen. Old job: VP of product management at Total Music, Universal Music and Sony’s (SNE) attempt to create a service that offered either free downloads or free streaming music as a way to combat file-sharing. It collapsed earlier this year and Project Playlist bought some of its parts.

New job: VP of product management at LimeWire, one of the last (one of the only?) high-profile peer-to-peer file-sharing companies based in the U.S. Not surprisingly, the service was embroiled with industry lawsuits for three years running.

Here’s Herskowitz’s blog post announcing his new job and his pending move to Brooklyn (Welcome, Jason! Pretty sure we’re neighbors.) from Washington D.C. It’s not a crazy career move: A job is a job and there aren’t that many in digital music these days. Besides, I hear that LimeWire has nice offices.

Which reminds me: How is it, exactly, that LimeWire stays afloat when the labels have been able to force so many of its peers to shut down? Good question. I’ve asked around and heard murmurings that the labels and the file-sharing service may be able to work out some kind of agreement, but I’ve heard that every 12 months or so. So I’ll believe it in when I see it.

In the meantime, LimeWire continues to allow you to download just about any song (and many other things) you can imagine over the Web for free, without paying anyone a cent. Though if you do try to download a copyrighted song, you do get this stern warning from the service. I take it in the same spirit as the warnings head shops give you when they say the bong they’re selling is for tobacco use only (click to enlarge):

But the lawsuits have yet to be resolved.

Confusing? Of course.

Here’s Project Playlist’s description of the deal, which references layoffs at the company to eliminate redundancies with the new acquisition, but doesn’t specify how many folks are being let go. Given that Total Music only employed about 30 folks at its peak and was essentially shut down last winter, it’s hard to see how many Total Music employees are coming aboard–I’m guessing fewer than a dozen, and am trying to confirm.

We recently acquired assets and employees from TotalMusic LLC, a digital catalog management and reporting system. This acquisition is an important platform that will allow us to host a streaming music service, help us with e-commerce solutions and provide a set of application programming interfaces that will be invaluable to us as we offer next generation digital music services to our users.

Today we are integrating the assets of TotalMusic into our Playlist operation. As a result we have to address some overlap in certain areas and let some employees go both from Playlist and Total Music. This is no reflection on the talent of the people we had to release, rather a responsibility we have to run a lean organization with no redundancies and clear lines of reporting.  This often happens when two companies merge, but it is never easy.

On a positive note, we are very excited about the progress we are making. With the Total Music acquisition and our recent licensing agreements with Sony ATV and EMI Publishing, we are developing new features and services everyday that will form an even deeper bond with our 45 million loyal users and create new revenue opportunities for our company as well as our music content partners. More to come, watch this Space!!

Total Music, which Universal started in the fall of 2007 and shut down this February after joining up with Sony along the way, was supposed to be a subscription music service that got bundled in with devices or with ISPs/cable guys/telcos, etc. Given that it never, to my understanding, streamed a single song or collected a penny in revenue, it’s interesting to see that Project Playlist thinks there’s something there worth buying.

The bigger picture: It’s hard to see how this company can move forward until new CEO John Sykes, who replaced Owen Van Natta when he decamped to run MySpace for News Corp. (NWS), can clear up lawsuits with Universal and Warner and then get Facebook and MySpace to let it back onto their respective sites. The social services were crucial to Playlist since they generated the majority of its visitors, but they cut them off last fall, presumably under pressure from the labels.

Given that Van Natta is now running MySpace and that Playlist was at least able to negotiate an asset purchase from Universal, perhaps there’s a shot at getting all of that accomplished. Then the service could concentrate on the even tougher task of trying to make money in digital music.

New MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta starts his first day on the job at MySpace bright and early this morning, coming to its Beverly Hills HQ as he takes over for co-founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe.

Along with him will be a new COO, former AOL exec Mike Jones, whose appointment will be announced this morning, sources said.

The pair will meet with MySpace staff today at 3:30 p.m. PDT.

Jones was the founder of Userplane, a social-networking application maker that was bought by then-AOL head Jon Miller in 2006.

Miller is now the digital chief at News Corp. (NWS), which owns MySpace.

(News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

Jones left the Time Warner (TWX) unit last year to start Tsavo, a digital content start-up.

Van Natta, who was running the Project Playlist start-up until his appointment, has stronger Silicon Valley ties. For now, he will commute to MySpace from Northern California, where his family lives.

Van Natta was a former top-ranking Facebook exec, still holding a small stake in the MySpace rival, and has also worked at Amazon (AMZN).

But, with a strong product and technology background, the Los Angeles-based Jones is an excellent choice to be a partner to Van Natta–who was hired by Miller last week in a flurry of change at the social-networking site.

Their challenges include: Reinvigorating the MySpace brand, upgrading its technology, adding more innovation to its feature set, continuing to grow its nascent advertising business and dealing with the tough renegotiation of its lucrative search and advertising deal with Google (GOOG).

They must also play deft diplomats at MySpace, where many remain loyal to DeWolfe and to co-founder Tom Anderson. Anderson is in talks to step down as president for an unspecified new role in the company. He currently remains president.

See a chat I had with Jones in the video below that I did at a gathering of Beta South, a networking organization for digital start-ups in the Los Angeles area, last year. (Jones is at the start, talking about the differences between Silicon Valley and Southern California.)

And if you want to read an informative and solidly reported piece on Van Natta–and are perplexed as BoomTown is by factually-challenged and agenda-stuffed diatribes of some about him–try out this one in The Wall Street Journal today.

Here is Jones in my video:

Legendary MTV Networks exec and co-founder John Sykes (pictured here in an interview on PBS’s “Charlie Rose” show) will replace Owen Van Natta as CEO of the controversial music-sharing site, Project Playlist.

He is a high-profile choice to take over for Van Natta, who was officially named CEO of MySpace this morning by News Corp. (NWS).

Van Natta, who also worked at Facebook, will remain an adviser to Playlist, which is based in Silicon Valley. It is not clear where Sykes will be located.

Sykes–who is on the Playlist board–was one of the original executives who launched the iconic music-focused cable channel 25 years ago, before leaving last year. He was also a key exec at both VH1 and Infinity Broadcasting.

He is well regarded in the music industry, an important criterion since Playlist has been dealing with legal attacks from some music labels. Settling with them will be key to the start-up’s survival.

Former AOL and MTV exec Bob Pittman, who is an investor in Playlist, worked closely with Sykes at the Viacom (VIA) unit.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Playlist Names Board Member and Veteran Media Executive
John Sykes as CEO

MTV Co-founder and Former VH-1 President Replaces Owen Van Natta

Palo Alto, Calif., April 24, 2009–Playlist, the leading social media network where over 43 million music fans discover, create and share playlists, announced today that Board Member and industry veteran John Sykes has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. As a Co-founder of MTV, President of VH1, and CEO of Infinity Broadcasting, Sykes brings extensive operating experience and industry relationships to the company as it partners with the music industry to provide advertising, subscription and e-commerce services to music consumers.

Owen Van Natta will serve as an Advisor to Playlist.

“John was a pioneer of the MTV revolution that forever changed the music industry landscape by giving fans a whole new way to discover and enjoy music,” said Bob Zangrillo, Chairman of Playlist. “Playlist looks forward to leveraging John’s tremendous track record operating media businesses and deep relationships in the music industry as it builds out the world’s premier social media service.”

“Creating and sharing playlists has become a phenomenon in our culture. With over 43 million registered users, Playlist is the number one site where fans go to discover, share and enjoy their favorite music,” said John Sykes, CEO of Playlist. “Leveraging our newly forged partnerships with the music community, we can now offer consumers deep access to their music and provide the industry with powerful new revenue streams.”

Playlist, one of the fastest growing sites on the Internet, continues to establish partnerships with the entertainment industry in an effort to offer a comprehensive collection of content that can be discovered, shared and monetized at www.playlist.com.

Former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta has finally been officially named as CEO of MySpace, as BoomTown reported yesterday, according to a press release from News Corp.

He will replace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe, who stepped down from the job earlier this week. DeWolfe will remain a strategic adviser at MySpace.

Van Natta, 39, will take over immediately and be based in Los Angeles, where MySpace has its HQ. But, with strong ties to Silicon Valley, he is likely to give the site more of a high-tech infusion.

Van Natta has most recently been running Project Playlist, a controversial music-sharing start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif. Previous to that, he worked at Amazon (AMZN).

He will be replaced there, in turn, by well-known former MTV Networks exec and co-founder John Sykes.

No other new top execs at the huge social-networking site have been named yet, as some had reported.

Instead, it will be up to Van Natta, who will work closely with and report to new News Corp. digital head Jon Miller, to energize the current staff and recruit new talent to MySpace.

The social-networking giant has seen its buzz and momentum wane in the face of the juggernaut growth of Facebook.

Van Natta played a key role in Facebook’s formation, striking key investment and advertising deals with Microsoft (MSFT), for example. He left after it was clear he was not going to become CEO, a job held by founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Nonetheless, MySpace is still the largest social network in the U.S., although Facebook is close to surpassing its size.

All Things Digital broke the news earlier this week that Van Natta was the top choice of News Corp. (NWS), which owns MySpace.

(News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

In his new job, Van Natta has a lot of challenges, including: reinvigorating the MySpace brand, upgrading its technology, adding more innovation to its feature set, continuing to grow its nascent advertising business and dealing with the expected end to its lucrative search-advertising deal with Google (GOOG).

He also must play deft diplomat at MySpace, where many remain loyal to DeWolfe and to co-founder Tom Anderson. Anderson is in talks to step down as president for an unspecified new role in the company. He currently remains president.

Here’s the full press release on Van Natta:

News Corporation Names Owen Van Natta Chief Executive Officer of MySpace
______________________

Los Angeles, CA, April 24, 2009–News Corporation today announced the appointment of Owen Van Natta to the role of MySpace Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Mr. Van Natta will be based in Los Angeles and report directly to Jonathan Miller, News Corporation’s CEO of Digital Media and Chief Digital Officer.

A highly-regarded digital executive, Mr. Van Natta, 39, previously served as Chief Revenue Officer and Vice President of Operations for Facebook, where he helped negotiate Facebook’s $240 million investment from Microsoft. Earlier, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Business and Corporate Development for Amazon.com. Most recently, he was the CEO of Playlist, Inc., an online music company.

“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,” said Mr. Miller. “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.”

“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,” said Mr. Van Natta. “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.”

While serving as Vice President of Operations and Chief Revenue Officer for Facebook, Van Natta focused on revenue operations, business development, strategic partnerships and technical operations. As Vice President of Worldwide Business and Corporate Development at Amazon.com, he managed global marketing programs and strategic partnerships. He was also part of the founding team of A9.com, the Amazon.com search company, and was responsible for site operations and sponsored-link advertising. Owen earned a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta will be named CEO of MySpace as early as tomorrow said sources close to the situation.

He will replace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe, who stepped down from the job yesterday. DeWolfe will remain a strategic adviser at MySpace.

News Corp. declined comment.

No other top execs at the huge social-networking site will be named yet, as some have reported.

Instead, it will be up to Van Natta, who will work closely with new News Corp. digital head Jon Miller, to energize the current staff and recruit new talent to MySpace, which has seen its buzz and momentum wane in the face of the juggernaut growth of Facebook.

Nonetheless, MySpace is still the largest social network in the U.S., although Facebook is close to surpassing its size.

All Things Digital broke the news yesterday that Van Natta was the top choice of News Corp. (NWS), which owns MySpace.

(News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

In his new job, Van Natta has a lot of challenges, including: reinvigorating the MySpace brand, upgrading its technology, adding more innovation to its feature set, continuing to grow its nascent advertising business and dealing with the expected end to its lucrative online ad deal with Google (GOOG).

He also must play deft diplomat at MySpace, where many remain loyal to DeWolfe and to co-founder Tom Anderson. Anderson was in talks to step down as president yesterday for an unspecified new role in the company. He currently remains president.

Van Natta knows from tense company politics. He left Facebook last year after serving as its COO, and also as chief revenue officer, after his relationship with founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg foundered.

But before that, he was key to striking its lucrative search and advertising deal with Microsoft (MSFT) as well as negotiating the $240 million investment by the software giant that valued Facebook at an eye-popping $15 billion.

Van Natta has most recently been running Project Playlist, a controversial music-sharing site.

A purchase of the start-up is not part of this deal, sources said, as it had been in previous talks Van Natta has had with News Corp. about other digital jobs.

Previous to Facebook, Van Natta worked at Amazon (AMZN) in a number of capacities.

MySpace owner News Corp. (NWS) didn’t name a successor to DeWolfe, but sources said the company is close to bringing in Owen Van Natta, the former COO at Facebook and current CEO of Project Playlist, as a replacement.

(News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

In addition, News Corp. said that it is in talks to move aside Tom Anderson, DeWolfe’s longtime partner and MySpace co-founder, from his current position as president.

Here’s the memo:

Chris DeWolfe to Step Down as CEO of MySpace

Will serve as strategic advisor to Company
______________________

Los Angeles, CA, April 22, 2009 – MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and News Corporation’s Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller, announced today that, by mutual agreement, Mr. DeWolfe will not be renewing his contract and will be stepping down in the near future. Mr. DeWolfe will continue to serve on the board of MySpace China and will be a strategic advisor to the Company.

Additionally, Mr. Miller announced that he was in discussions with Tom Anderson, MySpace’s president, about Mr. Anderson assuming a new role in the organization.

“Chris and Tom are true pioneers and we greatly value the tremendous job they’ve done in growing MySpace into what it is today,” said Mr. Miller.  “Thanks largely to their vision, MySpace has become a vibrant creative community with 130 million passionate followers worldwide.  It is an enormously successful property and we look forward to building on its achievements with a new management structure we’ll announce in the near future.”

“In a little under six years we’ve grown MySpace from a small operation with seven people to a very profitable business with over 1,600 employees,” said Mr. DeWolfe.  “It’s been one of the best experiences of my life and we’re proud of, and grateful to, the team of talented people who helped us along the way.  We thank them, as well as the MySpace community for making our vision a reality.”

“From the very beginning, our driving passion has been simple – to create and foster a platform where people across the globe can not only meet and interact, but share music, videos, thoughts and ideas,” said Mr. Anderson.  I look forward to working with Jon.  I love this business, and look forward to its next chapter.”

Finally, Owen Van Natta is about to win out over a founder.

The former Facebook COO (pictured here) is poised to become the CEO of MySpace, replacing co-founder and current CEO Chris DeWolfe.

DeWolfe will likely get a title as a special adviser to MySpace in a deal that is still coming together.

Settling all the specifics could take at least a day and there is always the possibility that this changing-of-the-guard deal could fall apart. But multiple sources close to the situation said it is more just a matter of ironing out the details.

Thus, the die seems cast for Van Natta to take over the thorny job of rehauling MySpace, which is owned by News Corp. (NWS).

(News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site).

In a post this morning, MediaMemo was the first to name Van Natta as the only candidate in the running to take over as leader of MySpace.

It’s familiar territory for him.

Van Natta never got the big job at Facebook, which is under the firm control of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

But Van Natta–who got to Facebook in its early days after stints at various companies, including Amazon (AMZN)–was a key early player in making the social-networking site into the juggernaut it is today.

He played a large role in its advertising and investment deals with Microsoft (MSFT), for example, as well as in hiring many of its current execs.

But, like many at Facebook, Van Natta left Facebook in early 2008 under tense circumstances, although he now is on good terms with Zuckerberg and others at Facebook.

Maybe not any longer.

In a delicious digital irony, he will be taking on Facebook head on, as MySpace–once the momentum player in the space–tries to regain its step against Facebook.

Van Natta is currently CEO of music start-up Project Playlist and it is not yet clear what will happen there. When he was previously talking to MySpace about running its music site, there was speculation that it might buy the start-up.

Today’s developments have happened quickly and without a lot of advance planning.

The talks to complete this deal are being led by new digital boss Jon Miller (pictured here), who came to News Corp. last month.

News Corp. officials declined to comment on the developing situation.

But sources said that Miller hadn’t been planning on getting rid of DeWolfe in the near future, and until yesterday, he was still evaluating his options.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had once treated DeWolfe as a favorite and gave him significant autonomy at MySpace.

But Murdoch, who brought Miller on, has been leaning toward a change in leadership as MySpace’s traffic has stagnated and its buzz and momentum have moved to Facebook.

Under DeWolfe, many have felt it has dropped the ball on innovation and in making key improvements to its technology and features.

Worst of all, MySpace’s lucrative $900 million search advertising deal with Google (GOOG) is also coming to an end, a deal that essentially paid for the News Corp. acquisition.

Recently, several key execs have left too, including COO Amit Kapur.

In general, the social-networking giant has had an air of decline about it, despite its still-enormous size.

Nonetheless, Murdoch had left the decision about the site’s leadership to Miller, his new hire, sources said.

Miller had been talking to many and was indeed leaning toward putting a new CEO in place, but not in this fashion. He had hoped to work out the transition with DeWolfe, said several sources.

Miller himself had been badly treated, when Time Warner (TWX) dumped him as CEO of AOL several years ago. Ironically, the media giant just ousted the execs who ousted Miller.

But Miller’s options narrowed last night, once TechCrunch ran a story claiming that News Corp. had hired a headhunting firm to “scour for possible replacements” for DeWolfe.

News Corp. hadn’t actually hired a headhunter at all, but the story spooked DeWolfe into calling Miller to ask what his plans were. That conversation led to today’s negotiations.

Van Natta is well known at News Corp. and was, at one point, the leading candidate to head up MySpace Music, which launched last fall, and the two sides held extensive conversations.

But Van Natta did not like the job’s org chart: Rather than a standalone company, MySpace Music is simply a unit of MySpace, reporting to DeWolfe.

MTV executive Courtney Holt eventually took the job.

Van Natta is intertwined with MySpace in other ways.

Project Playlist, the free music-streaming site he took over last fall, has seen traffic plummet after MySpace, along with Facebook, cut off the sites’ access to their users, a move prompted by lawsuits from several major music companies.

Van Natta has made some headway at extracting the company from its legal mess, which predated his hiring, and he has hammered out a settlement with EMI Music Group.

But Playlist is still being sued by other music labels.

And, even music sites that aren’t in legal trouble are struggling to keep their heads above water.

Thus, plenty of Silicon Valley watchers–including BoomTown, who calls Van Natta periodically to ask why he seemed to enjoyed the pain of running an online music business–have wondered why Van Natta landed at Playlist in the first place, and have speculated that he has been looking for a way out.

He has been on the short list for many big Web jobs at places like Microsoft and other Silicon Valley start-ups, but has not bitten until now.

People familiar with the matter tell me that DeWolfe and News Corp., specifically new digital boss Jon Miller, are discussing a leadership change today. News Corp. (NWS) officials declined to comment. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

Sources tell me Miller hadn’t been planning on getting rid of DeWolfe (pictured above) in the near future, and that until yesterday he was still evaluating his options. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had once treated DeWolfe as a favorite and gave him significant autonomy at MySpace. But Murdoch, who brought Miller on earlier this month, has been leaning toward a change as MySpace’s traffic has stagnated and its buzz and momentum have moved to Facebook.

Still, Murdoch had left the decision about the site’s leadership to Miller, his new hire, sources said. One possibility: Elevating DeWolfe to a nonexecutive advisory position.

Those options narrowed last night once TechCrunch ran a story claiming that News Corp. had hired a headhunting firm to “scour for possible replacements” for DeWolfe.

News Corp. hadn’t actually hired a headhunter, I’m told by multiple sources. But I’m also told that the report was enough to spook DeWolfe into calling Miller to ask what his plans were. That conversation led to today’s negotiations, which will likely lead to his stepping down as CEO, although he may remain affiliated with MySpace in some capacity.

Meanwhile, News Corp. has been talking to Van Natta (pictured here) about taking DeWolfe’s place. Van Natta, who had been a highly regarded executive at Facebook, was at one point the leading candidate to head up MySpace Music, which launched last fall, and the two sides held extensive conversations.

But Van Natta, like many other potential hires for that position, bristled at the job’s org chart: Rather than a standalone company, a la Hulu, the site News Corp. set up with GE’s (GE) NBC, MySpace Music is simply a unit of MySpace, reporting to DeWolfe. MTV executive Courtney Holt eventually took the job.

But Van Natta’s fate has remained closely intertwined with MySpace anyway. Project Playlist, the free music-streaming site he took over last fall, has seen traffic plummet after MySpace, along with Facebook, cut off the site’s access to their users, a move prompted by lawsuits from several major music companies.

Van Natta has made some headway at extracting the company from its legal mess, which predated his hiring, and he has hammered out a settlement with EMI Music Group. But Playlist is still being sued by Warner Music Group (WMG) and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, and even music sites that aren’t in legal trouble are struggling to keep their heads above water. Plenty of Silicon Valley watchers wonder why Van Natta landed at Playlist in the first place and think that he has been looking for a way out.

Here’s a video of DeWolfe talking with BoomTown’s Kara Swisher a little more than a year ago when MySpace opened a new office in San Francisco. Below that is a video of Van Natta talking to Swisher in 2007 about Facebook’s ill-fated “Beacon” project.

No terms were disclosed. The settlement, in conjunction with an earlier deal struck with Sony’s Sony Music Entertainment (SNE), means that Project Playlist now has deals with two of the big four music labels. But Warner Music Group (WMG) and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group are still suing the company.

Just as important: Project Playlist hasn’t been reinstated by MySpace and Facebook, both of which booted the service off their social networks last November. Since Project Playlist depended on those sites to drive traffic to its site, it’s hard to see how it can gain much traction unless it can sweet-talk the two other labels into coming aboard.

My expectation was that a settlement was in the works last fall because that’s when former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta joined the company as CEO and investor Bob Pittman poured several millions of dollars into it. Neither of those men, I assumed, was betting on a prolonged lawsuit.

Project Playlist isn’t the only music start-up struggling these days–even those that haven’t been sued by the labels, or have deals with them or even investments from them, are trying to figure out how to survive. Most assumed they’d be able to make money via advertising, but that was a hard sell even before the recession/depression.

Still, better to have a deal than a lawsuit.

Preprepared quotes from both sides:

Van Natta: “It is crucial for us to continue connecting our users with more of their favorite music. This partnership will provide us with a wide-ranging selection of content to satisfy our users’ appetites to share and purchase music. We are excited to now have both EMI and SONY BMG Music catalogs available and we hope to continue to expand and enhance our service.”

Ronn Werre, EMI Music’s President, Music Services worldwide: “Making our music available on a fan favorite like Project Playlist is part of EMI Music’s mission to connect artists and fans and to give fans more ways to discover new artists. Project Playlist is becoming a fan favorite. Our artists also know that word-of-mouth among friends is a powerful part of music discovery.”

Pittman’s Pilot Group Ventures has already taken flyers on two of these things–DailyCandy, a shopping/events guide for cosmopolitan ladies, and Thrillist, a DailyCandy for the ladmag set. Now he’s done it again: He’s invested money in VitalJuice, a DailyCandy for fitness fans. Terms weren’t disclosed, but I’m told that Pilot invested $1 million in the company.

The New York-based company started up in the spring of 2007 and now has 50,000 subscribers; that number should increase as the company launches versions of the newsletter targeting Los Angeles and New York. Co-founder Amanda Freeman told me that she and partner Lisa Blau liked the DailyCandy model and thought it would work well for fitness and wellness tips.

“We felt that email was the perfect kind of delivery for this kind of content,” she says. “If you had a disease, you’d look up something on the Web. But healthy living isn’t something you seek out.”

I don’t know how much convincing Pittman required, but if anyone is a believer in the model, he is: He invested something like $3 million in DailyCandy in 2003 and sold it last summer to Comcast (CMCSA) for $125 million. It’s the biggest win to date for Pittman, who is well into a third career as a private media investor following earlier stints at Viacom’s (VIA) MTV and as one the major players during the ill-fated AOL-Time Warner (TWX) saga.

Some of Pilot’s other high-profile deals include stakes in Huffington Post and Project Playlist.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) initially contacted Facebook last summer requesting the removal of the Project Playlist application for copyright violation, and recently reopened those communications. We have forwarded the RIAA’s letters to Project Playlist so it can work directly with that organization and music labels on a resolution. In the meantime, the application must be removed to comply with the Facebook Platform Terms of Service. Our hope and expectation is that the parties can resolve their disagreements in a manner that satisfies the developer and copyright holder, that continues to offer a great experience to music fans, and that doesn’t discourage other developers from using Platform to share their creativity and test new ideas.”

The only surprise here is that it took Facebook this long to face up to reality: There was next to no upside for Mark Zuckerberg and company in fighting the big music labels, three of whom are suing Project Playlist. But there was plenty of downside: At best, the social network would end up squaring off against potential partners; at worst, it’s conceivable that it could end up being sued by the labels as well.

Facebook’s move is also less important than the one that MySpace made last week. That’s because Project Playlist is first and foremost a music service geared toward users of News Corp.’s (NWS) social network.

It’s also not surprising that MySpace was the first to bail on Project Playlist at the labels’ request: Not only does the network have its own competing music service–MySpace Music–but its partners in that service are the four major labels– Sony (SNE), Warner Music Group (WMG), Universal Music Group and EMI.

Most important is what the big labels who are suing Project Playlist– Warner, UMG and EMI–hope to accomplish by forcing the social networks to cut it off at the knees. The boilerplate answer from the labels is that Project Playlist violates copyright, and that they’d complained to MySpace and Facebook before, etc, etc.

But that’s a silly argument: The labels have also been trying to negotiate a deal with Project Playlist for some time, which is why investor Bob Pittman sank up to $20 million into the company earlier this year and former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta came aboard as CEO last month. I’m told that those talks had reached advanced stages this month.

So that leaves us with two possible conclusions:

1. This is just another negotiating move by the labels, which have previously sued Web services before partnering with them (see: Warner/Imeem, Universal/MySpace). But since they’ve already sued Project Playlist, cutting off their oxygen is more effective.
2. The labels have decided that ad-supported, free music services like MySpace Music, Imeem and Project Playlist just aren’t going to work, period, and that’s there’s no point in even trying to let new ones thrive.

For now, I’m going with No. 1, just because it’s the most obvious answer. But I’m willing to hear other arguments: Sound off in comments below or drop me a line at peter@allthingsd.com.

It’s conceivable that iLike, led by brothers Hadi and Ali Partovi, is simultaneously pursuing funding options. But my understanding is that much like competitive music service iMeem, which is also on the block, iLike’s executives and investors are worried about keeping the company afloat as a standalone entity. Delivering free music on the Web has so far proven to be a high-cost, low-revenue endeavor, and that’s a difficult path to choose in this environment.

My sources couldn’t tell me what sale price iLike is hoping to get. It has raised about $16 million in two years. Most of that came from Ticketmaster (TKTM), which has now split off from Barry Diller’s IAC and trades as standalone company. A smaller slug came from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group, which has taken a stab at other Web music start-ups, including a recent investment in Project Playlist. I’ve asked the Partovis and their PR rep for comment, but haven’t heard back.

Ticketmaster’s existing ownership makes it an obvious buyer. The company also has a relationship with RealNetworks (RNWK), which began powering a free music service for iLike this summer. And while I don’t have confirmation that the two companies have actually talked, the third very obvious buyer would be Facebook, which is responsible for the company’s success to date.

iLike originally started out as a music discovery service that promoted the homegrown music found on Garageband.com, another Partovi brother music start-up. But it really hit its stride with the launch of Facebook’s open developer platform in the spring of 2007. Since then it’s become one Facebook’s most popular apps, with more than 5.4 million active monthly users.

That hasn’t translated into huge revenue: The company hasn’t expended much effort trying to sell advertising on Facebook, which is a challenging environment to begin with. And while it generates referral fees when it sends concertgoers to Ticketmaster, those sales haven’t been significant enough to register on the company’s SEC filings so far.

Now Facebook is looking to create its own music service, and it’s conceivable that iLike could step in and take on that role for the company. One big problem: Facebook wants to provide users with a service that gives them the ability to listen to songs in their entirety, à la MySpace Music. But Facebook doesn’t actually have licenses with the big labels that allow it do that. Instead, it provides users with 30-second clips.

All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher visited with Hadi Partovi this summer; below the two talk about iLike’s history and ambitions.

Or maybe they’re just like us: When their 401k’s gets crushed in a once-in-a-lifetime market rout, they think twice before writing another check.

That appears to have happened in October, when VCs spent less money, on fewer companies, than they have in years. Details from Thomson Reuters/PE Week, via PE HUB:

The data show that U.S.-based venture firms invested in just 250 companies in October, down from 565 companies in September and 518 companies in October 2007. You have to go all the way back to January 2004 (when they invested in 232 companies) to find a lower number. The only other October with fewer deals was in 1993.

The amount of capital that VCs are investing also plummeted in October, when U.S.-based firms put $2.5 billion to work, down from $3.8 billion in September and $3.2 billion in October 2007. The October 2008 total is the smallest amount that U.S. VCs have invested since February 2006, when they invested about $2.4 billion. Looking only at October, the last time the monthly total was lower was in October 2004, when about $2.4 billion was invested.”

Recall that in addition to the market getting crushed last month, October also ushered in a flurry of look out! pronouncements from some of the VC world’s biggest names, including Sequoia Capital. So it’s understandable that deal flow might dry up.

But it’s not going away entirely. And it doesn’t mean that VCs are avoiding Web 2.0-like gambles. See, for instance, the $20 million or so that investors just pumped into Project Playlist, yet another music discovery services with both legal challenges (the music labels are suing it) and operational ones (there isn’t much revenue, and getting more will be tough).

Nor does it mean that the investors who fund VCs themselves are bailing out–yet. More on that later.

Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta will take the CEO job at a music discovery site called Playlist, a move that had been speculated last week, after he did not end up taking another position as head of MySpace Music.

Van Natta’s arrival at Playlist was not the only news for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up–former AOL exec Bob Pittman’s Pilot Investment Group is also investing an undisclosed amount of money in Playlist. Pittman will also join its board.

Playlist has previously raised several million dollars, said sources, but the new funding is many times that, to total about $18 to $20 million.

The move to Playlist is an interesting one for Van Natta, who has looked at a number of jobs since leaving the high-profile social-networking site earlier this year.

He has talked to a wide range of companies, sources said, including Microsoft (MSFT) and a range of start-ups, as well as with MySpace, which is owned by News Corp. (NWS). (News Corp. also owns this site).

Those talks between Van Natta and MySpace to run its new music initiative did not pan out for a variety of reasons.

But he has long expressed a desire to become a CEO of a company, rather than just head to another executive job within a larger company, so the move to run a start-up is not a surprise.

In an interview this afternoon, Van Natta told me he got very intrigued by the possibilities at Project Playlist, which was the first iteration of the start-up and in which he is an investor, due to its viral growth.

And, indeed, Playlist has grown quickly to become one of the larger music communities on the Web, claiming that more than 38 million music fans monthly, sharing playlists via its Web site and also widely distributed embeddable widgets. The site has tens of millions of daily page views, according to surveys.

To get to those big-scale numbers, Playlist essentially has offered users a giant linking service for music, not unlike Google (GOOG) with all information, pointing users to promotional, free and sometimes illegal music and music video tracks all over the Web.

Those links to illegal music have resulted in a lawsuit aimed at Playlist from the music industry, sources said, a sadly typical experience of many online music services.

The usual tactic for the music giants: Sue first and shake down later.

Under Van Natta, I would guess, Playlist is likely to reach out to music companies and strike deals.

The company also needs to settle on its main business plan, which appears to me to have been less important than its explosive growth.

Playlist currently does have some small amount of advertising on the site, and seems to be making most of its scratch from sending leads to ringtone sellers.

Van Natta did not want to reveal specific strategies for Playlist going forward, only noting the opportunity is large.

“Discovery around music is exploding on the Internet,” said Van Natta. “And the company that does the best job of taking advantage of that is really going to be huge.”

That said, there have been a lot of music-aimed efforts like Playlist in the music space, with a lot of different business plans and varying degrees of success, ranging from the Apple (AAPL) behemoth iTunes site, which sells single songs, to the CBS (CBS) music service, Last.fm, which relies more on advertising revenues.

Other contenders in the space include the Rhapsody subscription service from RealNetworks (RNWK), music discovery service iLike and many others. MySpace has also waded deeply into the music space, and Facebook is also reportedly weighing its own service.

Van Natta was one of Facebook’s earliest and most prominent execs, serving in jobs like COO and also Chief Revenue Officer while there.

He came to Facebook in the fall of 2005, after a stint as VP of Worldwide Business and Corporate Development at Amazon, and was part of the founding team of A9, the Amazon search company.

“I am excited to be building a company again,” said Van Natta, who has taken many months off since he left Facebook in February.