COO and Two More Execs Un-Friend MySpace to Join Startup

MySpace COO Amit Kapur and two other executives have walked away from the social networking giant for positions at an undisclosed startup company.

Social networking sites are known for their drama—“OMG, I can’t believe she friended him!“—and MySpace’s executive suites don’t seem to be any exception, as company chief operations officer Amit Kapur, senior engineering VP Jim Benedetto, and senior product strategy VP Steve Pearman have all jumped ship in favor of positions at an undisclosed startup company. Rumors of the move have been circulating all week, but MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe confirmed it in a statement today.

“Personally, I’m 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,” wrote DeWolfe. “Most importantly, Amit, Jim, and Steve depart as great friends of MySpace and of our senior executive team.”

DeWolfe indicated all three execs are expected to remain on MySpace’s board of directors for several weeks to ease the transition.

Kapur was named MySpace COO last year, overseeing the operations of MySpace.com as well as MySpace Mobile. Kapur also headed up the launch of MySpace Music in September of 2008, along with the the company’s expansion into India.

Although MySpace remains bullish on the revenue potential of its advertising and media offerings, social networking trends have shifted towards competitor Facebook in the last year, with Facebook now the top-trafficked social networking site.