The blogging site has gone through several changes in ownership since its inception, first being acquired by Six Apart, who then sold it to the Russian media company SUP in late 2007. Unlike competitors Automattic and Six Apart, LiveJournal is a completely hosted blogging solution, blending blogging with social networking features, and the vast majority of its blogs take the form of personal diaries as opposed to more professional, topical writing.
While LiveJournal execs are apparently blaming the slowdown in the economy and ad spending, stats point to an overall decline in interest in the medium. Both LiveJournal and competitor Xanga have seen their traffic decline over the past two years, as social networks like Facebook and MySpace have come to dominate the demographics that the blogging sites target.
Here is LiveJournal's statement regarding the layoffs:
“LiveJournal Inc. today announced a restructuring of their US and Russian operations to more effectively manage costs in light of the global economic downturn.
LiveJournal Inc.’s headquarters , technical operations (and servers,) legal, administration and the customer service teams will remain in the United States. LiveJournal’s global product development and design will now be coordinated out of its Moscow office. The pooling of resources between the US and Russia will allow the company to build a stronger business model, well positioned to guarantee the long-term success of LiveJournal.