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Owen Van Natta is out as CEO of the struggling social network site. Replacing him will be Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who, along with Van Natta, had been brought on a year ago to shake up the Bev Hills-based operation (Van Natta had been hired from Facebook). Jon Miller, chairman and CEO of News Corp.'s Digital Media operation, made the announcement, which is going to be a big deal in the social networking world. From the release:
"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."*I'm sure there's plenty of backstory forthcoming, but for now here's an interview he did with TechCrunch in Davos just 10 days ago.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.