My Space is not their space anymore

That's what happens when you sell your company - something MySpace founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are discovering, now that their Web site phenomenon called MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., through the company's Fox Interactive Media unit. Take the matter of location. As explained in the current issue of Fortune, Anderson and DeWolfe were comfortable in the laid back confines of Santa Monica - a block from the beach - but Fox Interactive had new offices in Beverly Hills. Very un-MySpace.

Over drinks at Casa del Mar, a hotel in Santa Monica, Anderson laid out his objections to [News Corp. President Peter] Chernin, arguing that the move would wreck the laid-back MySpace culture. "What I like about Tom is that he's so straightforward," says Chernin. "If something's bothering him, he comes right at you." Chernin listened and said he'd call in a couple of days with his decision.

Guess where that went.