Will MySpace slash 30% of US staff?

US Internet social networking giant MySpace said Tuesday it would cut 500 jobs, nearly 30 per cent of its domestic staff, in a restructuring aimed at boosting efficiency.

MySpace, a unit of media magnate Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, said it was cutting payrolls "as part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business."

The restructuring plan affects all US divisions of the company and the round of job cuts will lower the domestic workforce to 1,000 employees, it said in a statement.

"Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," said Owen Van Natta, MySpace chief executive.

"I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product."

Van Natta, who was named MySpace CEO in April, was a chief revenue officer and vice president of operations for Facebook when he resigned from the rival company in early 2008.

Facebook's popularity has soared amid a surge in social networking in the United States.

Facebook was the top social networking site when ranked by total minutes for the month of April, showing a gain of 700 per cent from a year earlier, according to a recent study by Nielsen Online.

MySpace was in second place, with its total minutes declining from 7.3 billion in April 2008 to 5.0 billion in April 2009.

Agencies

Technology can pull US out of crisis, says Bill Gates

Technology can pull the United States out of recession and help the world's ailing financial markets work better, Microsoft Corp
Bill Gates Chairman Bill Gates told a high-level business summit at the company he co-founded.

"The drug companies will get back in high productivity mode. The software, IT revolution -- we're just at the start of that," said Gates at Microsoft's annual CEO Summit at the company's campus near Seattle.

"What we can do for education, communication, and what that looks like for the efficiencies of world markets, we are just at the beginning of that."

Gates, who focuses on health and education issues at his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since giving up his day-to-day role at the world's largest software company last year, made the remarks at the private event.

"The opportunities for innovation are stronger today than ever," Gates told the audience, which included billionaire investor Warren Buffett -- the world's second richest man behind Gates himself -- alongside News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos.

Despite the fact that Microsoft is laying off 5,000 employees, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer also struck an optimistic note, saying the business world is only "coming into halftime" of the Internet revolution.

He downplayed fears that the recession would choke off investment in technology start-ups from venture capital (VC) firms. "The VCs are pulling back," said Ballmer. "The seventh, eighth, and ninth copy of the idea won't get funded today, but most good propositions are still going to get funded. There's plenty of venture capital out there, relative to ideas."

He said research and development spending was also strong. "I don't know anybody in our industry actually who's cutting their R&D budget," said Ballmer. "I know people who are doing a lot of different things, but most people are not slashing their R&D budget."

Microsoft's research chief Craig Mundie said in February the company was not cutting back on its $9 billion R&D budget this fiscal year.

Agencies