MySpace co-founder agrees to step down as CEO

Chris DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder of MySpace, has agreed to step down from his position and stay on as a "strategic advisor." News Corp., which owns MySpace, did not name a replacement but the buzz on the All Things Digital blog today has been hinting at Owen Van Natta, former Facebook COO, as a replacement.

The blog is also reporting that company president and co-founder Tom Anderson may also be pushed aside or at least placed into a different position.

Clearly, as momentum in social networking has moved toward sites such as Facebook and, more recently, Twitter, executives at News Corp. are interested in breathing new life into MySpace, once the king of the social networks.

In a statement issued by News Corp., DeWolfe said:

In a little under six years we’ve grown MySpace from a small operation with seven people to a very profitable business with over 1,600 employees... It’s been one of the best experiences of my life and we’re proud of, and grateful to, the team of talented people who helped us along the way. We thank them, as well as the MySpace community for making our vision a reality.