The move will slash costs and raise profits as the global advertising slump continues to take its toll. About 300 of the company’s 450 international employees will lose their jobs. The job cuts will reduce the firm’s total number of employees to about 1150 from 1900.

Over the past two years, the company has launched a number of international offices and country-specific MySpace sites. Operations in London, Berlin and Sydney are to become primary hubs for MySpace’s international operations. Offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden and Spain are under review and face possible closure.

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The change of plan comes as the company faces intense competition from rival Facebook, which recently overtook MySpace as the US’s leading social networking site. In addition, new developments in online social networking such as Twitter have also a posed a challenge.

The measures have been implemented by News Corporation head of digital, Jonathan Miller, and MySpace chief executive, Owen Van Natta. The decision to move headquarters to a new campus facility in Los Angeles has also been reversed.

“MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions,” said Mr Van Natta, adding that the proposed changes aim to transform the company’s international growth strategy.

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