Kapur, Jim Benedetto and Steve Pearman will stay on “for the next few weeks,” the Beverly Hills, California-based company said yesterday in a statement. Benedetto oversaw engineering, while Pearman managed product strategy.

The departures follow last weeks resignation of News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin, who supervised the New York-based media companys Fox operations in Los Angeles, including Fox Interactive. MySpace is part of that unit, which is cutting jobs to cope with a slump in advertising sales.

“It comes at a time when youd like to see continuity in the organization,” said David Bank, a New York-based analyst with RBC Capital Markets, who rates News Corp.s stock “outperform” and doesnt own it. “It gives the outward illusion of the potential for executive turnover at a time when youd like to see stability.”

Following Chernins departure, Chairman Rupert Murdoch will take over day-to-day management of Fox. MySpace co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson intend to stay at News Corp., where their contracts are due to expire in October, the Financial Times reported last week.

Google Contract

Kapur was promoted to chief operating officer in January 2008 and was responsible for new-business development. The company said at the time he would lead a project to open the Web sites code, allowing developers to create games and services. He was with MySpace for four years, overseeing the first mobile initiatives and playing a role in developing MySpace Music.

The company didnt disclose the venture that Kapur, Benedetto and Pearman are exploring.

“Were incredibly excited to see what this team creates together and wish them the best of luck,” MySpace said in the statement.

In the past year, the site was overtaken in visitors by social-networking rival Facebook Inc. Global Facebook visitors more than doubled in 2008 to 222 million visitors, compared with 125 million for MySpace, according to ComScore Inc., a research firm in Reston, Virginia.

“This is going to have an emotional toll more than anything, that three of their top people are leaving right at a time when they are in a head-to-head fight against Facebook,” said Charlene Li, the founder of digital media consulting firm Altimeter Group.

As Kapur departs, MySpace is approaching the end of a $900 million advertising contract with Google Inc., owner of the worlds most popular search engine. The contract, through which Mountain View, California-based Google places ads on MySpace, expires in 2010, Bank said.

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