Read Myspace CEO Mike Jones's goodbye email, as Justin Timberlake buys slice

The sold-for-a-song website's CEO has announced staff cuts his departure of the company's role in an email today, as Justin Timberlake emerges as one of the new owners.

Two weeks ago we reported that music and DVD retailer HMV had agreed a £220m refinancing package with its lenders. Now Myspace are conducting a series of restructuring deals as well, which include a remarkable reduction in their workforce.

Myspace CEO Mike Jones has sent an email to his staff of 400 today, announcing the sale of the company to Specific Media for $35m, 5% of 2006 price, and explaining that staff cuts would be deeper than expected. He would leave Myspace within two months. In a funny twist of fate, Justin Timberlake emerged as one of the backers of the new deal, meaning some of the profits of the Facebook movie The Social Network went in to the refinancing of its antecedent.

Read the full text of CEO Mike Jones’ email to MySpace staff below:

From: Mike Jones
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 11:26 AM
To: Myspace All
Subject: IMPORTANT COMPANY NEWS
Importance: High

Today, we are announcing that Myspace will be acquired by Specific Media, one of the world’s leading online media and advertising platforms. Over the next few days you will be hearing from the team at Specific, including their CEO, Tim Vanderhook, regarding their exciting plans for Myspace and how it fits in with the overall vision of their company.

In conjunction with the deal, we are conducting a series of restructuring initiatives, including a significant reduction in our workforce. I will assist Specific with the transition over the next two months before departing my role as Myspace CEO.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for the incredible experience it has been to lead this company and to work closely with all of you over the past several years. While I regret we won’t be working together at Myspace any longer, I am very proud of the work we have done here and believe we have performed with excellence – even under extremely difficult circumstances.

My time here at Myspace represents the most engaging and challenging time of my professional career. I have found our team to be comprised of the best people I have come across in our industry.

You can read the press release below. Once again, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.

Thanks,

-M

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