This series of developments comes as a big surprise.  Just one week ago, rumor had it that Hirschhorn might leave MySpace due to tension with Van Natta.  But according to Kara Swisher, News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller then became involved, and after talking to all three men, wound up sacking the CEO.

So let’s discuss MySpace’s new co-presidents.  Before becoming MySpace’s chief product officer, Hirschhorn filled executive positions at both Sling Media and MTV.  Jones founded Userplane prior to becoming MySpace’s chief operating officer, and also worked for AOL following an acquisition.

Both men have done well at MySpace, too.  Miller stated with respect to Van Natta’s semi-replacements (remember the difference in titles), "Mike and Jason have demonstrated true leadership in their operational and product guidance, respectively, and I have the utmost confidence in both of them to lead MySpace into its next chapter."

Hirschhorn and Jones said, "We joined MySpace last April with very a specific set of goals in mind, and are anxious to continue working together to make those goals a reality.  This business is now pointed in the right direction, and we have a great team of employees that will continue to push MySpace closer to its potential as the place where people go to be discovered and to discover great content."

Assuming a new report is at all true, Miller’s not making the effort alone, of course.  Jessica E. Vascellaro, citing "people familiar with the matter," writes, "Mr. Miller has been talking to private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds for months in hopes of raising money for a Yahoo deal."

 Jon Miller

In regards to Miller’s financial target, she then continues, "Mr. Miller believes he can do a deal that would be worth around $20 to $22 a share to Yahoo shareholders . . . which would involve raising about $28 billion to $30 billion to purchase the entire company."

Yahoo’s stock is currently sitting at 11.50, giving it a market cap of $15.94 billion, so all sorts of shareholders and board members would probably be in favor of such an arrangement.

Whether Miller can find people who are willing to put up a lot of cash (or even want to own Yahoo at all) is a different matter, however, and any possible deal appears to remain very far from being done.