Whatever Happened To Tom From Myspace?
As the former social network giant Myspace fades into our collective Internet memory, there's one question on old users' minds. Whatever happened to Tom? You know, that guy who greeted everyone with a smile when they logged into Myspace every day has seemingly dropped from the face of the earth. But that's not true. Tom's still out there. Here's his story, and where he ended up.
Tom and some friends create MySpace
Tom Anderson began Myspace (then spelled "MySpace") with some friends back in the August 2003. This little site quickly became the social networking platform of choice among teens and young adults, sending Friendster (remember Friendster?) to the Internet graveyard. In fact, Myspace was even in a position to acquire Facebook at one point, but passed on the deal, according to the book Stealing MySpace. Myspace automatically listed Tom as every new users' friend...though, most people deleted him from their accounts. But Tom didn't care. He was sitting atop the Interwebs, with a bright, lucrative future ahead of him. And it was going to get very lucrative, very soon.
News Corp buys Myspace
As Myspace rapidly dominated the information superhighway, the business world began to take notice. Several mass-media corporations wanted a piece of the action, but only one emerged victorious. In 2005, News Corp, owned by ornery Aussie Rupert Murdoch, bought Myspace for $580 million. Not long after the purchase, Anderson become president of Myspace, which isn't too shabby for a guy who rose to prominence by looking over his shoulder while standing in front of a marker board. However, even though Anderson made some mondo moolah out of the deal, things didn't remain all that great for everyone's favorite friend.
Heads begin to butt
Like with almost every other presidential position on the planet, becoming the president of Myspace wound up being a huge pain in the neck for Anderson. He told Fortune magazine, "Before [News Corp] I could do whatever I wanted. Now it takes more time to get people to agree on things," like budget reviews. Things weren't peachy-keen for the News Corp folks either. They saw Anderson as something of an obstacle. An anonymous company executive told Reuters, "Tom...ended up being a complete bottleneck on getting things done." With the honeymoon over, someone was about to get deleted from the boardroom.
T.O.M. replaces Tom
By 2009, News Corp had their fill of Tom Anderson, according to The Wall Street Journal. He, along with Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolf, was "push[ed] aside" and replaced as president of Myspace in 2009. To add insult to injury, he was subsequently removed from the Myspace website completely. In 2010, his profile was essentially removed, and in its place, News Corp installed Today On Myspace, or T.O.M., according to Bloomberg Business. Talk about "rise of the machines."
Tom disappears
Replaced by a robot, Tom Anderson dropped off everyone's radar not long after his ousting from the Myspace presidency, if he hadn't already. Aside from a cameo in Judd Apatow's depressingly unfunny Funny People, Anderson kept a low profile. Various rumors concerning his whereabouts circulated. According to Inquisitr, Tom died in a fiery car wreck. Another hoax had him dead in a robbery, or so says the International Business Times. (Supposedly, the fake robber even felt really bad once he realized who he'd killed.) But it turns out that the reports of Anderson's demise were greatly exaggerated. Despite what the pessimists out there hoped, Tom actually wound up living a very good life.
Tom thinks about baseball
Like Mark Cuban before him, Anderson attempted a go at owning a professional sports team. However, unlike Cuban, Tom's plan didn't pan out. According to Anderson's Google+ account, he's been an avid baseball fan since 1998. His idea was to take his Myspace money and start a franchise in Nevada. Interestingly, his wanted to create a team in a manner similar to what Billy Beane did with the Oakland A's, as dramatized in Money Ball. Once Anderson learned this had already been done, and not wanting to look like a copycat, he dropped his national pastime dreams. But now with his hopes dashed, Tom needed to find a new direction in life, and there was only one place he was going to get it.
Tom wanders the desert
Dethroned, defeated, disoriented, Tom needed to do a little soul searching, so he decided to wander the wastelands, hoping to find some answers. Okay, not really. But he did go to Burning Man in 2011, which takes place in the Nevada desert. (Nevada seems to have a strange hold on Tom.) There, Tom found a new vocation: photography. According to ABC News, it was at this "notoriously dusty, hard-to-photograph festival," Anderson got bit by the shutterbug (note: not an actual bug), and from all accounts, he hasn't looked back once.
Tom becomes a photographer
Camera in hand, Anderson travels the world feeding his new found passion for portraiture. He's hopped to and from far-flung, exotic locales such as Myanmar, the Philippines, and Iceland, focusing mainly on landscapes. Interestingly, the founder of a social networking site claims he's too shy to photograph people. Along with seeing the world, he told ABC News that his aim is isn't "to represent nature exactly," but instead, he's "trying to make something beautiful like a painter would." He's not too shabby either. And, Tom posts his pics to Instagram for public viewing. That's right: Facebook's image-sharing social network.
Tom is still on social media
Just because Anderson has little to nothing to do with Myspace anymore, he hasn't turned his back on the Internet entirely. He clearly remembers where he came from. He's most active on the aforementioned Instagram and his Google+ account, where he has over 6 million followers as of this writing. Not bad considering he's not a default friend anymore. He also has accounts on Twitter, Reddit, and his former nemesis Facebook, where he posts maybe three times a year, if that. In addition to travelling and taking pics of what he sees, Tom pretty much chills all the time because he doesn't really work anymore, the lucky so-and-so.
Tom retires, sort of
Aside from his social media presence, Anderson dipped his toes back into the Internet waters at least once. According to The Wall Street Journal, he advised the online gambling start-up RocketFrog Interactive and still worked with them as of 2014, Other than this astro-amphibious venture, when Anderson spoke to ABC News in 2014, he was effectively retired. About a month later, he confirmed on his Twitter account that he was: "Enjoying being retired." Must be nice.
What will become of Tom next?
Tom's adventures haven't ended just yet, though. When he spoke with ABC News, he also said that he's a simple man of constant change. He's taking pictures today. Tomorrow, who knows? He's got enough money. He could try shooting for the moon...literally.