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Report: MySpace To Name New COO

TechCrunch reports that former AOL exec Mike Jones has become the new chief operating officer of MySpace, making him the number 2 executive at the newly reorganized News Corp. company. He will report to new CEO Owen Van Natta. He, Van Natta, and Jonathan Miller, News Corp.'s CEO of Digital Media, will address MySpace employees today at the social network's Los Angeles headquarters.

Jones is actually the founder of Userplane, which AOL bought in 2006 while Miller was that company's CEO. As Michael Arrington notes, "Jones knows Miller well." He left AOL in 2008 to start another company, called Tsavo, which sources said is "off to a very fast start." Jones will remain on the Tsavo board of directors in an advisory role.

Jones' appointment is part of Miller's sweeping house of the top executives at MySpace. So far, co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, respectively the former CEO and former President of MySpace, are both out. Arrington thinks that CTO Aber Whitcomb, another co-founder, will be next to go. "This is the kind of executive that many hoped Miller would bring in to run the massive MySpace property," Arrington says, adding that another good sign is that Jones is a longtime active user of MySpace, whereas Van Natta "barely has a presence" and Miller doesn't even have a profile.

Read the whole story at TechCrunch »

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