Three MySpace executives, including Amit Kapur, the chief operating officer and a rising star, are leaving the company to work on a start-up.

Mr. Kapur has been in his post at MySpace for 13 months, overseeing the social media company's global operations as well as new forays into mobile and other initiatives. Joining him are Jim Benedetto, senior vice president of engineering, and Steve Pearman, senior vice president of product strategy.

'We're incredibly excited to see what this team creates together and wish them the best of luck as they transition from helping run a company to building a new one,' MySpace said in a statement. 'They will remain on board for the next few weeks to ensure a smooth transition company-wide.'

MySpace declined to comment on who will succeed the three executives. MySpace is a unit of News Corp., which also owns Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co.

The departures come as the social networking site has struggled to generatesubstantial ad revenue and is running up against a tough ad environment in the recession. During its most recent earnings call, News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said MySpace experienced a 'slight downturn in revenue' in the latest quarter.

New areas such as mobile, video and music are still getting off the ground. Meanwhile, the site faces increased audience competition from rival Facebook, with which it is about even in domestic traffic. Internationally, Facebook has surpassed MySpace, according to Web measurement firm comScore.

Mr. Kapur, 27 years old, joined MySpace in 2005 as its first business development hire and was promoted to vice president of business development in 2006. He is credited with playing a key role in a MySpace ad deal with Google, among other partnerships. Before working at MySpace, Mr. Kapur worked at NBC Universal in its strategic planning and business development group.

Emily Steel