Tom Anderson

Exclusive: Myspace to Be Sold to Specific Media for $35 Million

Kara Swisher in News on June 29, 2011 at 10:51 am PT

Closing another chapter on one of the Internet’s most iconic properties, Myspace has been sold to to Specific Media, an advertising network, for $35 million. Sources close to the situation said the deal is being completed today, although it has not been officially signed. Myspace’s owner, News Corp., will hold on to a very small [...]

Exclusive: Myspace Sale Nearing End Today With Low $30M Price and Buyer You Never Heard Of

Kara Swisher in News on June 28, 2011 at 7:42 am PT

Have you ever heard of Specific Media? What about Golden Gate Capital? One of them is likely to be the new owner of Myspace by Thursday, as the deal to sell the distressed social networking icon goes down to the wire for a $20 million to $30 million price and massive layoffs.

Exclusive: Rhapsody Selects Former MySpace Product Exec as Independent Board Member for Spinoff

Kara Swisher in News on April 21, 2010 at 5:34 am PT

Tom Andrus, former MySpace product head, has been selected to be the single independent board member of the newly independent Rhapsody digital music service. Andrus joins a pair of directors from each of Rhapsody’s large shareholders: Bob Kimball and Mike Lunsford from RealNetworks and Wade Davis and Van Toffler from Viacom. The Seattle-based Rhapsody spun off from RealNetworks recently and has plunged into efforts to expand its offerings and become profitable.

Video Tour of Redesign: Back to the Future at MySpace? Or Just Another Retread?

Kara Swisher in News on March 10, 2010 at 5:19 am PT

Earlier this week, BoomTown visited MySpace HQ in Beverly Hills, Calif., to interview its new co-presidents, Michael Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, and get a look-see at its evolving revival plans to stop the social networking ship from sinking further. Thus, I did a video tour of a storyboard-like room at MySpace, where the team is trying to formulate the “discover and be discovered” motto it is now using, which is pretty much its old motto restated. Can the old become new again?

Digital Musical Chairs at MySpace and FIM Still Going–Exec Departures and More…

Kara Swisher in News on July 10, 2009 at 5:23 am PT

As BoomTown previously reported, there have been a lot of exec departures and shifts at Fox Interactive Media and its MySpace unit, which seem to be continuing. Especially departures, it seems, as the massive restructuring of the digital units of News Corp. keeps shaking out. Top engineer Max Engel, who ran the social networking site’s open initiatives, for example, is leaving to join the new stealth start-up being helmed by ex-MySpace employees, including former COO Amit Kapur. And there are a lot of others too.

MySpace: After the Layoffs, Here's What's What and What's Next

Kara Swisher in News on June 17, 2009 at 5:30 am PT

Now what? The party-all-night social-networking site that has been MySpace so far got a massive morning-after shock yesterday when 30 percent of its workforce was laid off. And today, MySpace, which is still 1,000-strong, has to face the cold, harsh light of day in the aftermath of the restructuring and get busy quickly figuring out a way to reinvigorate a brand that has suffered after a stunning rocket of a start many years ago. So, based on many sources I have spoken to over the last week, here’s a rundown of the next steps MySpace will likely be taking and who’ll be making them.

MySpace Musical Chairs: Jason Hirschhorn Also In as Chief Product Officer

Kara Swisher in News on April 27, 2009 at 9:09 am PT

MySpace has officially announced the appointment of entrepreneur and former AOL exec Mike Jones as COO, as BoomTown had reported earlier today. But the social-networking site also named former Sling Media top exec Jason Hirschhorn as chief product officer in what has become a series of senior management moves at MySpace. Both Hirschhorn and Jones will report to newly named CEO Owen Van Natta, the former COO of Facebook, who replaced MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe last week. Once the trio get their bearings, many sources indicate that News Corp., owner of MySpace, has given Van Natta and his key execs free reign to remake the unit from top to bottom.

Back to School: New MySpace CEO Van Natta Starts Today (Joined by Former AOL Exec Jones as COO)

Kara Swisher in News on April 27, 2009 at 12:44 am PT

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 also be a new COO, former AOL exec Mike Jones, whose appointment will be announced this morning, sources said. 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., which owns MySpace. With a strong product and technology background, 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.

Van Natta Confirmed as CEO of MySpace–The Full Press Release

Kara Swisher in News on April 24, 2009 at 8:54 am PT

Former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta has finally been officially named as CEO of MySpace, as BoomTown reported yesterday and News Corp. announced this morning. 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. Here’s the full press release.