MySpace to Slash 300 International Jobs

It may be called MySpace, but the company is telling a group of international employees that it's not their space anymore.

The social network site, a unit of News Corp.(NWS Quote), announced plans to cut its international work force by 300. According to a press release, MySpace has an international staff of 450. The plan will reduce that to 150, while closing at least four offices and centralizing international operations in London, Berlin and Sydney.

Meanwhile, offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain are on the potential chopping block. MySpace China and MySpace's joint venture in Japan were left off the list of those offices being axed.

"With roughly half of MySpace's total user base coming from outside the U.S., maintaining productive and efficient operations in our international markets is important to users worldwide and our immediate financial strength," said CEO Owen Van Natta, in a press release. "As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace's staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions. Today's proposed changes are designed to transform and refine our international growth strategy."

One week ago, the company announced plans to slash another 420 jobs in the U.S., bringing its U.S. work force to about 1,000.

These moves come after Facebook surpassed MySpace in both global users and hoopla for the rights to social networking supremacy.

This also marks another restructuring move for Van Natta, MySpace's new CEO. A former Facebook executive, Van Natta was named to the top spot in April after founder Chris DeWolfe stepped down.