Three executives from social network MySpace, including Chief Operating Officer Amit Kapur, are departing the News Corp.-owned company to create a new venture.
The two execs leaving with Kapur are Jim Benedetto, senior vice president of engineering, and Steve Pearman, senior vice president of product strategy.
"We're incredibly excited to see what this team creates together and wish them the best of luck as they transition from helping run a company to building a new one," a statement from MySpace read. "Amit, Jim, and Steve depart as great friends of MySpace and of our executive team. They will remain on board for the next few weeks to ensure a smooth transition company-wide."
A company-wide memo from CEO Chris DeWolfe accentuated the health of MySpace, which has lost significant ground to rival Facebook in the past year. Facebook is now the industry leader worldwide, and while MySpace remains the U.S. leader in social networking, Facebook is expected to surpass it within a year or two. The memo highlighted recent initiatives from the five-year-old service like streaming music service MySpace Music, a redesign last year, and the HyperTargeting ad program.
MySpace has gone through a number of executive shakeups over the past year, including a big one late last July that saw five new executive hires at the same time as a number of departures.
The company would not comment on replacements for the three departing executives, and said that Kapur had not yet disclosed the nature of his new project.