In total 420 jobs will go, bringing the domestic headcount at the News Corporation-owned social network business down to 1,000.

CEO Owen Van Natta said in a memo (via Silicon Alley Insider): “These decisions are difficult for everyone, but especially for our friends and colleagues who contributed to MySpace’s success and are directly affected by the changes.

“Through no fault of theirs our company’s size became unsustainable. The future success of MySpace is dependent upon us operating as a nimble and entrepreneurial company with the adaptive mentality of a start-up.”

MySpace was the original darling of the social networking scene but has since been overtaken in popularity by Facebook, which boasts 200m members worldwide to its rival’s 130m.