Myspace Owner-Specific Media Hit With Layoffs

Myspace owner-Specific Media has laid of a percentage of its staff today, we’ve confirmed with the company. Specific Media said these layoffs took place in sales and operating areas, and was part of a consolidation effort to eliminate redundancies between the two businesses. As Specific Media says in a statement: The company is consolidating forces to ensure greater alignment between its workforce and the direction in which it’s headed. Specific Media says that “less than 8%” of the company’s employees were laid off. Specific Media has about 750 employees, so around 50-60 employees may have been let go.

Apart from Myspace, Specific Media is an ad technology company that aims to help drive viewership for content owners, engagement for brands and relevance for consumers. The company allows marketers to buy digital ads across the Web, TV, online video, mobile platforms. Of course, you may know that Specific Media (along with Justin Timberlake) bought Myspace earlier this year from News Corp for around $35 million.

Part of that deal included letting go half of Myspace’s then staff of 400 employees. These layoffs are in addition to those cuts made in June.

Chris Vanderhook, Chief Operating Officer at Specific Media and Myspace issued this statement about the news today: “We’ve made great progress in integrating the companies post acquisition, and have identified new ways to streamline the businesses. In addition to the synergies realized, there have been some real innovation and big progress made toward achieving our goals…We are well on our way to executing our plan and will invest in our strategy as we continue to grow.”

Unfortunately, Specific Media recently decided to scale-back the elaborate plans to debut the new Myspace. Traffic has also been declining for the beleaguered social network.