MySpace to lay off half its workforce

MySpace has announced plans to lay off 500 employees worldwide, roughly 47 per cent of its current workforce.

Mike Jones, MySpace chief executive, said that the cuts are part of an effort to turn the floundering social network into a more focused media service.

"Today's tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability," he said.

"These changes were purely driven by issues related to our legacy business, and in no way reflect the performance of the new product."

The news prompted rumours that MySpace may be preparing for a sale. CNBC reported last week that MySpace parent News Corp is hoping to unload the site as early as mid-2011.

MySpace was once the preeminent social networking site on the internet, and was sold to News Corp for $580m in the summer of 2005.

Since then, MySpace has struggled to fend off rivals such as Facebook and has suffered several executive shakeups. The company hired former Facebook vice president Owen Van Natta as chief executive in 2009, but he resigned less than a year later.