LiveJournal on Life Support After Job Cuts

That sound you’re hearing is the social networking bubble officially bursting. Sup, the Russian Internet company that owns LiveJournal, has laid off 12 of the site’s 28 employees, without severance, sources tell ValleyWag's Owen Thomas. All of LiveJournal’s product managers and engineers are departing, leaving a skeleton crew of finance and operations workers to keep the blog-and-social network hybrid running.

The company cites the "global economic downturn" in its official statement, but that's "the kind of pat excuse every boss is giving for layoffs," writes Thomas. It's more likely that Sup is realizing that last year's $30 million acquisition of LiveJournal was an "expensive mistake." "There's a lot of fuss in running a social network," Thomas concludes, "but not that much money."

(More LiveJournal stories.)