Another Silicon Valley Vet Dumps Myspace

Does anyone care that Myspace, the once-high flying website purchased by News Corp more than four years ago, is just about dead? The moribund social networking site was once the hottest place on the web, now it’s just a bunch of ads and no one really cares about it. Think of it though–it sold for $650 million and once led the pack!

I saw Myspace.com in today’s WSJ when their latest CEO announced he is leaving the site. He’s Owen Van Natta, who is described as a ‘Silicon Valley veteran’ who once held the top job at Facebook. I think one clue that would have made me doubt that this vet was in it for the long-run is that he never moved to Los Angeles where the site is based. Instead he commuted from the SF area. I think if I was paying someone the kind of money any ‘Silicon Valley vet’ would command, I’d put in the contract that he has to live nearby.

Before I wrote this, I took a quick trip over to Myspace to see what’s going on there besides leadership turmoil. On my Mozilla browser, I was ordered to download the newest version, if I wanted to continue to the site. Since I’m on a cafe computer, that wasn’t an option, but it is typical of a site that’s on the way down. If I have to download something just to browse, well you’re not going to be around very long.