Former Facebook executive Van Natta is in the running for MySpace CEO job

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Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s former chief revenue officer, has emerged as contender for the top job at MySpace, as co-founder Chris DeWolfe announced today that he would not renew his contract and would be stepping down.

Van Natta left the burgeoning online social network in February 2008, and ultimately landed the chief executive’s job at ProjectPlaylist, an interactive music streaming site. His name was mentioned last year as one of the finalists to run MySpace Music, a job that ultimately went to MTV Networks executive Courtney Holt. He is now in discussions to take over the top job at MySpace, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Speculation has swirled for weeks that DeWolfe would be forced out of the company he founded with Tom Anderson. MySpace, the hot social network News Corp. acquired in 2005 for $580 million, has been losing ground, and Internet sizzle, to rival Facebook.

News Corp.’s newly installed chief executive of Digital Media, Jon Miller, conducted an organizational review and concluded that he needs someone new to run MySpace, people close to the matter said. Anderson, MySpace’s president, will be assuming a new role in the organization.

Miller issued a statement late today, lauding DeWolfe and Anderson.

‘Thanks largely to their vision, MySpace has become a vibrant community with 130 million passionate followers worldwide,’ Miller said.

-- Dawn Chmielewski