Owen Van Natta, the influential technology executive and investor whose career included senior leadership roles at Amazon, Facebook, MySpace and Zynga, has died unexpectedly in August 2026. He was 56.
Van Natta was born November 12, 1969, and built a career that closely followed the transformation of the internet from an emerging commercial industry into a dominant force in global business and social media.
His death was reported in August, with available reports describing it as unexpected. No official cause of death has been publicly disclosed, and no speculation about the circumstances should be treated as confirmed.
Van Natta first established himself as a technology executive at Amazon, where he worked from 1998 to 2005 and eventually became vice president of worldwide business and corporate development. His responsibilities included strategic partnerships and business development during a critical period in Amazon’s expansion.
In 2005, he joined Facebook as chief operating officer at a time when the social-networking company was still a private startup. He helped oversee revenue operations, business development and strategic partnerships before later serving as chief revenue officer. He left Facebook in 2008.
Van Natta subsequently became chief executive of Project Playlist, a music-sharing service, before taking over as chief executive of MySpace in 2009.
His arrival at MySpace came during a major turning point for the social-media industry. The company had once been one of the internet’s dominant social networks but was facing growing competition from Facebook. Van Natta attempted to reposition MySpace around entertainment, music and media before stepping down in 2010.
Later that year, he joined Zynga as executive vice president of business operations and became a member of the company’s board. His work there focused on areas including revenue strategy, corporate development, international expansion and branding. He remained with the company until leaving his executive role in 2011 and continued serving on its board until 2013.
After his corporate leadership career, Van Natta increasingly turned his attention to technology investing. He founded 415 Investments and later became a founding partner and managing partner of Prefix Capital, focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Born Owen Thomas Van Natta, he studied at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature in 1992. His professional career nevertheless took him deep into the technology industry, where he became an executive at some of the most influential companies of the internet era.
For many observers of Silicon Valley, Van Natta’s career represented a unique connection between several defining chapters of the technology industry. He worked at Amazon during its rapid expansion, helped Facebook develop its early business operations, attempted to reshape MySpace during the social-networking battle and later helped lead Zynga during the rise of social gaming.
His later work as an investor allowed him to remain involved with emerging technology companies and entrepreneurs.
As news of his death spreads, Van Natta is being remembered for a career that stretched across e-commerce, social networking, digital entertainment, gaming and venture investment.
At 56, his death marks the loss of a technology executive whose professional journey was closely intertwined with some of the most important companies and developments of the modern internet.
