Timberlake to turn MySpace into online 'Idol'?

For those who live for seeing someone rise from obscurity to reach the heights of temporary fame, seeing "American Idol" once a year just isn't enough.

In any case, it's only on two nights a week. What are you supposed to do with the other five? Pray that Simon Cowell's new show "The X Factor" will somehow be entertaining?

It seems that Justin Timberlake, he who is one of the new purchasers of MySpace, is at one with human feelings.

For, according to the Associated Press, Timberlake's manager, Johnny Smith, said after the purchase that, though the specific format still needs to be worked out, using MySpace as a vehicle for new talent is very much in the plans of Timberlake and Specific Media, the new purchasers.

"Whether it becomes a talent competition or something like that, those are things that we will still flesh out. We definitely want to bring the industry back to MySpace to really look at the talented people that have put their faces there."

This seems like an excellent idea. It seems that half the world now spends its days sitting at desks wearing headphones. They could very easily be sitting in instantaneous judgment over new performers for at least three hours of each of those days.

Perhaps each day of the week could have its own genre. To snap the world into renewed focus, Monday could be rock 'n' roll day, while Wednesday, the so-called hump day, would be a prime candidate for a little R&B.

Saturday, the night that's alright for fighting, would surely be punk day.

Another fine element of this MySpace notion is that Timberlake, unlike some of, say, the "American Idol" judges, is possessed of considerable taste. We might actually see acts that are truly progressive, rather than the strange MAD magazine-cover country figure, Scotty McCreery, who won this year's "Idol."

The new owners say they will hold a press conference on August 17 to announce their plans. After this announcement, office life might experience a radical new musical dawn.

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The delicious irony of MySpace, Zynga, and Owen Van Natta

How's this for irony:

It was less than a year and a half ago that Owen Van Natta was ousted from his job as CEO of MySpace.

But last week--just as the failed social-networking site sold for a paltry $35 million--Van Natta could have bought it himself for a fraction of his stake in Zynga, the social-gaming phenom that just filed for its IPO and where he's a top exec and shareholder.

Owen Van Natta, chief business officer of Zynga

(Credit: Facebook )

As the San Francisco-based Zynga's chief business officer, he was listed second after CEO and founder Mark Pincus on its S-1 on the list of top management and also serves on its board.

The filing also showed that Van Natta got about $43 million in total compensation in 2010.

That was due to part to his large Zynga holdings, including about 3 million shares he owns outright via restricted stock units that Zynga calls ZSUs, as well as 6.75 million more in options priced at a low $6.43 each.

All told, he has a 1.6 percent stake in the company. That could be worth upward of $325 million if Zynga garners an expected $20 billion valuation. And it could be even more if its public offering pops higher as other recent Internet outings have done.

And that's why when Van Natta arrives at the fancy and exclusive Allen & Company mogul fest in Sun Valley, Idaho, this week, he might want to thank News Corp. digital head Jon Miller--the man who fired him from MySpace.

After the MySpace debacle in February 2010, according to its filing, it appears that Van Natta bounced back quickly to enter into a consulting agreement with Zynga in mid-April via his Luminor Group.

By August, he was hired on full-time by Pincus and also became a director. One reason for getting that plum post, Zynga said, was Van Natta's experience as a longtime Internet exec at Amazon and, more importantly, Facebook.

He left the social-networking giant in mid-2007--where he had served as COO and, later, chief revenue officer--after relations with its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg became somewhat tense.

But that's water under the bridge now; and, in fact, the filing was full of information about the close relationship with Facebook, which is a critical one for Zynga.

And, of course, for Van Natta, who gets the my award for best Silicon Valley recovery of 2011.

Had he stepped up and bought MySpace from his large Zynga proceeds, though, he would have gotten my lifetime achievement award for pure moxie.

Story Copyright (c) 2011 AllThingsD. All rights reserved.

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