Owen Van Natta

MySpace Acquires Music Discovery Service iLike

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 19, 2009 - 10:18am.

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace on Wednesday announced that it will acquire iLike, the provider of a music discovery service with 55 million users. While financial details were not disclosed, reports earlier this week pegged the purchase price at around $20 million.

WSJ: MySpace to Reposition Itself as Entertainment Portal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 13, 2009 - 7:16am.

Sun Valley, Idaho - News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch intends to reposition MySpace, the online social network his company purchased for $580 million in 2005, "as an entertainment portal," where "people are looking for common interests," The Wall Street Journal reported. Murdoch made the comments last week at the Sun Valley conference.

Reports: Former Facebook Exec to Become New MySpace CEO

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2009 - 7:43am.

Beverly Hills, Calif. - Owen Van Natta, the former COO of Facebook, is set to become the new CEO of social networking rival MySpace, the blog AllThingsD reported. He is expected to replace company co-founder Chris DeWolfe, probably starting with the title of special advisor.

Project Playlist Raises $20 Million, Names New CEO

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 12, 2008 - 8:18am.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Project Playlist, a site that lets users build song playlists and share them across social media sites, has raised around $20 million in new financing, and named former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta as its new CEO, VentureBeat reported.

Report: Schuon, Van Natta Finalists for MySpace Music CEO

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 12, 2008 - 12:07pm.

Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, which has been searching for a chief executive for its forthcoming MySpace Music service for the past six months, has narrowed its search to finalists including Andy Schuon and Owen Van Natta. Shuon was an executive at Universal Music Group, and headed that company's Pressplay digital music joint venture with Universal before heading programming at MTV and Infinity Broadcasting. Van Natta is currently a vice president at Amazon.com, but left Facebook in April, where he was head of business development and strategic partnerships.