MySpace cuts 30% of workforce; Says it was bloated

MySpace said it would cut its staff by 30 percent in an effort to become  "a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business."

When the cuts are over, MySpace will have about 1,000 employees.

MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said in a statement (Techmeme):

Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company.

The big question is whether a company that bulks up as much as MySpace has can regain its startup mojo.

News Corp.'s digital chief Jonathan Miller said he was confident that Van Natta, who joined MySpace in April, can right the ship. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said the same on the company's earnings conference call.

We'll see. MySpace has lost its cool and its traffic edge to Facebook. Meanwhile, Murdoch and other execs talk of making MySpace more portal-ish to generate ad revenue. That recipe may not work too well.