Would the last person to leave please turn out the lights? Myspace Australia has shut its doors, with even the managing director Nick Love looking for a new gig. Word on the street is that as early as this coming Friday all the remaining skeleton staff will have been let go. The move is not a complete surprise, with the news in January that the company’s Australian office which had up to 40 staff at one point would shut up shop. However, it was expected at that point that some staff would be kept on as the company outsourced its advertising sales and content management.
Although Myspace’s owners, News Corporation, bought the site for $580 million back in 2005 in a move that media observers viewed as a masterstroke at the time, and saw it valued at up to $12 billion at one stage in 2007, the social networking and music sharing network is now an internet antique considered a relic by both bands and their fans. with pages that take too long to load and the general feeling that you can see tumbleweeds blowing through it, the rise of Facebook has seen it relegated to internet antique status in just six years.
News Corp has announced plans to sell it after it kept eating in to the company’s profits, with many observers now of the opinion that News will be lucky to get just $100 million for it. The company is yet to announce details of the Australian partnership that will handle advertising and content management but head honcho Rebekah Horne, who has the security of a job within the worldwide organisation is expected to stay on to supervise the transition.
