A year after making one of the largest office leasing deals in more than a decade, Fox Interactive Media is abandoning plans to move into nearly a half-million square feet of office space in Playa Vista.

The company is committed to a 12-year, approximately $350m lease. But now it faces financial difficulties and plans to lay off some of the people who were slated to move into two new office buildings in the splashy development near Marina del Rey.

The layoffs are part of a restructuring of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.'s digital operations and come only two months after former AOL executive Jonathan Miller was named chief digital officer, with oversight of the media giant's online properties. It was not known how many employees would be let go, but people familiar with the situation said the number of pink slips would be significant.

Los Angeles Times