Myspace Gets Roomier--Slashes 5% of Workforce

Image via CrunchBase

Myspace: new owner, same curse.

The social networking site focused on streaming music and discovering new artists, laid off five percent of its staff in what CEO Chris Vanderhook termed a consolidation aimed at moving the beleagured company toward operating in the black, according to an article last Friday in the Los Angeles Business Journal (www.labusinessjournal.com).

The 10-year-old Myspace was purchased for a song by Specific Media Group and singer/actor Justin Timberlake in June 2011, for roughly $35 million from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which shelled out $580 million to acquire the company in July 2005.  Although Myspace last month boasted gains to 36 million visitors, up from 24 million in June, ComScore paints a bleaker picture, citing an 81 percent decline in traffic to the site from June 2011, to August 2013, the LA Business Journal article reported.

The company did not specify the number of staffers pink-slipped, but the Journal article estimated that 14 workers were terminated based on the 290 employees Myspace lists on LinkedIn. Once the prettiest girl in the room until Facebook emerged, Myspace unveiled its made-over Web site in January.

Third Circuit Court of Appeals Still Unmoved by Janet Jackson's Breasts

Image via WikipediaThe United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday upheld its 2008 ruling that the Federal Communications Commission acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" when it fined CBS Corp. $550,000 for airing the 2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime wardrobe malfunction that caused Justin Timberlake to bare Janet Jackson's breast for an entire nine-sixteenths of a second (see "TUOL" post 9/17/09).

As reported by the Associated Press, the same 3rd Circuit panel that backed CBS in 2008 again found the FCC improperly penalized CBS in CBS Corp. et al v. FCC (Case No. 06-3575) in a majority opinion written by Judge Marjorie Rendell that responded to a Petition for Review of FCC Orders Nos. 06-19 & 06-68. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 ordered the appellate court to review its 2008 ruling based on a 2009 case involving Fox Television in which the High Court said the utterance of a single expletive on live TV could warrant an FCC fine.

Still, the 3rd Circuit was unwilling to support the actions of the FCC--much as the bustier of the now 45-year-old Jackson was unable to support her nipple-shielded breast.