Gawker
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rumormonger
Who's Leaving Facebook Next?
The wheels seem to be coming off at Facebook after the ouster of CFO Gideon Yu. We hear another executive is leaving the social network to spend more time with his family. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Pope John Peeps II: Where do these photos keep coming from? It looks like all the Facebook senior staff had their pictures taken at... 12 Responses | Other threads
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exits
Cash-Crunched Facebook Loses Its CFO
One by one, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has driven away his cofounders and close confidants. The latest to go: chief financial officer Gideon Yu. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by dado: At least they all have a way to stay in touch. 5 Responses | Other threads
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exclusive
Another Exec Unfriends Facebook
Facebook is fun to use. But it's not a fun place to work — as confirmed by the defection of Net Jacobsson, a key executive in Facebook's effort to cash in on your life online.
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By Owen ThomasComment by thecowardlylion: Gee working for a 24 year old is no fun? I can't imagine. This is why investors insist we bring... 5 Responses | Other threads
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twitter
Twitter's bad news is a bad business
People who use Twitter, a service which posts short updates to the Web and cell phones, love nothing more than to Twitter about themselves, and the medium they've so enthusiastically adopted. If you go by the Twitterers' collective reporting, every event, from an earthquake in Los Angeles to terrorist bombings in Mumbai, is more notable for the fact that people are writing about it on Twitter than for its inherent interest as news. The dominant narrative of Twitter is the rise of Twitter, the latest force to displace the mainstream media and roil the world's information economy. Too bad the real story of the company is one of top-to-bottom incompetence.
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By Owen ThomasComment by sample032: "...Twitter faces large bills from cell-phone companies which charge it for forwarding text messages to cell phones" Someone from Meebo told... 10 Responses | Other threads
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facebook
Sheryl Sandberg's assistant quits, too
What does Camille Hart know about Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's plans that we don't? Hart, Sandberg's longtime executive assistant who followed her from Google to Facebook, has left the company after less than a year, we've learned, confirming a note left by commenter insidefb. We can't wait to hear Sandberg's spin on this departure. Remember her now-classic line about the series of executives leaving Facebook this summer? "There is no specific underlying story behind the few execs leaving our company," More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sggrf: something about facebook is fishy 4 Responses | Other threads
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jeff hammerbacher
Bear Stearns, Facebook escapee set to inflate open-source bubble
A quartet of Valley veterans has started Cloudera. They're pitching it as "Red Hat for Hadoop." Hadoop is an open-source implementation of Google's MapReduce infrastructure software, supposedly useful for Internet-computing projects. Cloudera plans to offer technical support for Hadoop. And yet here I thought the whole point of cloud computing was that someone else ran Hadoop so you didn't have to. Whatever! I'm confident that the founders of Cloudera will make tons of money, if only for this reason: Its data guru, Jeff Hammerbacher, worked on credit derivatives at Bear Stearns before he left and joined Facebook. He joined the social network in time for its notional value to soar to $15 billion. Cloudera's business looks questionable, but I trust Hammerbacher's ability to convince someone else that he's built something so vast and complicated that they buy it before they figure out what it's really worth. (Photo by jakob) More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by michaellamb: was that dude walking backwards in a windtunnel? 1 Responses | Other threads
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facebook
Why Facebook is foundering
The great hope of the Valley, the startup everyone thought was the next Google, the company whose IPO might restart the stock-market gold rush for everyone, is not well. Why? Look to its founder. Mark Zuckerberg is mismanaging his creation's transition to greatness. In Facebook's own parlance, the company's plight is "complicated." It will take in $300 million to $350 million in revenue this year, thanks in part to a lucrative ad deal with Microsoft. But its $15 billion valuation is premised on a far brighter future — a future that may never materialize. The biggest symptom of Facebook's ailment is the flight of technical talent. In the Valley, success attracts smart people, who attract other smart people. Yes, they're after money, too, but having brilliant coworkers counts for a lot. These great minds bond and form, yes, a sort of social network of their own. When they leave, the network frays, weakening the company's ability to attract new talent. More » -
conspiracy theories
Mark Zuckerberg's road rage
Having completed his vision quest in India, Zuckerberg is now moving on to the requisite Eurotrip. Shown here guest-lecturing at the Technische Universität-Berlin, he's also expected to speak at an invite-only function in Munich. These trips might not seem peculiar, given Facebook's international expansion. But there is one odd pattern we've noticed. More »
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Comment by gogetemguy: did he wear that North Face fleece in India? come'on Z, get a fashion clue! 3 Responses | Other threads
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rumormonger
Jonathan Heiliger, top Facebook exec, may leave
Will the last tech executive to leave Facebook please turn off the lights at the datacenter? We hear Jonathan Heiliger, Facebook's operations VP charged with running the social network's expansive server network, has been interviewing for other jobs. He just completed a year at the company, which is usually when employees' stock-and-options packages begin to vest. Odd: We thought Heiliger might be happier at the company with the appointment of Marc Andreessen to Facebook's board. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by ghunda: I heard that Sheryl shot him in the face on a quail hunting trip. more » | Other threads
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dustin moskovitz
Facebook founder's goodbye email hints at business-focused startup
When he announced his cofounder and college roommate Dustin Moskovitz's departure from Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn't say what he would be up to. But in a separate email leaked to Valleywag, Moskovitz hints at his plan: With fellow engineer Justin Rosenstein, who's also leaving the company, he hopes to create tools like the ones he built at Facebook to run its internal operations, and market them to all sorts of companies. Here's his note to colleagues: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by SavoryFigNewton: "I didn't want to construct efficiencies, I wanted to engineer them." Geez, he should start by constructing some efficiencies in his... 2 Responses | Other threads
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exits
Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, star engineer quit
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has just informed Facebook's staff that his long-restive cofounder, Dustin Moskovitz, is leaving the company. Adding to the blow: Moskovitz, left, is taking with him Justin Rosenstein, right, a top engineer who was one of the first employees Facebook poached from Google as it began its tumultuous rise in 2007. The two are starting a new company together. Rosenstein wrote a much-circulated email to friends explaining why he'd left Google, with the now-famous line, "Facebook really is That company.... I have drunk from the kool-aid, and it is delicious." Rosenstein's note is worth rereading — keeping in mind that, if he's leaving, Facebook must no longer be the company Rosenstein wrote so enthusiastically about: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Carlos: I love the fact that guys who went to some of the best schools around are still bigger morons than... 3 Responses | Other threads
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sheryl sandberg
Liar, liar
It seemed like such a simple proposition. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wanted Ben Ling to lie for her, and get rich doing it. Ling is — was — the director of Facebook's applications platform, which had garnered the social network much of its buzz over the past year. But he'd been supplanted by Elliot Schrage, Sandberg's PR guy, as head of the platform, and had gotten a job offer to return to Google. For the search engine, Ling's return was an invaluable PR victory, after a string of defections — including Sandberg herself. It was likewise a blow to Facebook's image; the company has lost a string of technical leaders since Sandberg started her reign of terror. More » -
exits
Who's the next Facebooker to go?
The departure of star Facebook director Ben Ling has been roiling Facebook since word first spread at the social network's Palo Alto headquarters yesterday. One inevitable question some Facebookers are asking: What does this mean for the price of our stock? If Facebook were publicly traded, it's unlikely one employee's exit would cause a blip. But private tech companies like Facebooks are the ultimate growth plays, and momentum matters. If Facebook becomes known as a place top talent flees instead of gathers, it could tank Facebook's perceived value. What will be telling: Who leaves next, and how fast. One likely candidate: Chamath Palihapitiya. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Passerby: @stayobjective: Yeah I tend to think in antiquated terms like a company should have a product, or figure out a... more » | Other threads
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exits
Ben "Bling" Ling to leave Facebook
Ben Ling, Facebook's high-profile director of platform product marketing, considered a star poach from Google, is now rumored to be moving on from Facebook. Kara Swisher has further details. We think we know the story: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, in a widely derided move, put a nontechnical guy, her aide-de-camp and chief flack Elliot Schrage, in charge of Facebook's applications platform. Photo above: Ben shaking it at Club Asia in 2006, in a now-unpublished YouTube video.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Nick Douglas: I hear from a Googler that he's headed back there. more » | Other threads
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kevin johnson
Microsoft's Windows dilemma
Here are all the talking points you'll hear about Kevin Johnson's departure as the chief of Microsoft's sprawling Platform and Services Division — and what to say about them. The failed Yahoo bid killed his prospects of becoming Microsoft's CEO. Perhaps, but Steve Ballmer, who is more to blame for the Yahoo debacle, wasn't going anywhere, and Johnson may not have been prepared to wait. Johnson was charged with competing with Google in search and advertising, and he failed. And you would have done any better? Facebook took Microsoft for everything it's worth in striking its deal for Microsoft to invest and sell ads on the social network — and that's Johnson's fault. True enough, but Microsoft's $240 million investment is pocket change for the software giant. Enough with the cocktail-party chatter. Here's why I think Johnson really left. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper: I find tha Search thingy cool, where MSFT give money to Red cross when you use that search engine. Oh God,... more » | Other threads
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exits
Valley's 150 biggest companies all run by men
With Diane Greene ousted as the CEO of Silicon Valley software company VMware by a jealous man and replaced by testosterone-laden former Microsoftie Paul Maritz, there's not a single woman running any of the Bay Area's largest 150 companies by revenues. We'd be less despondent about this if the up-and-coming women didn't have us so down. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Shadowlayer: I recently made a network on Ning for my relatives, and nobody used it. Honestly I think the entire project is... more » | Other threads
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exits
Matt Cohler, another member of Mark Zuckerberg's braintrust, leaves Facebook
Facebook's vice president of product management, is reportedly leaving the company to join Benchmark Capital. Two possible interpretations leap to mind: Sheryl Sandberg, the Facebook COO recently hired away from Google, is pushing out, one by one, the executives closest to Zuckerberg, leaving him increasingly isolated. Or Zuckerberg, loathe to give up control over Facebook as a product, is doing it himself. Update: Cohler is joining the VC firm as a general partner, not an entrepreneur-in-residence, as we'd first reported — a considerably more prestigious role, where he'll be investing money in startups himself, rather than waiting to get funded. He'll stay tied to Facebook a "special advisor" to Zuckerberg — which suggests that any falling-out was not with the Facebook CEO. Cohler, for his part, tells Swisher he got along well with Sandberg, and helped recruit her to the firm.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper: Are those Facebook guys all bastards from the same mother? They all look the same. Maybe the Mormons are onto... more » | Other threads
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exits
What will San Francisco do without some guy named Julian Brass?
Maybe you don't know who Engage.com's Julian Brass is? Odd. Because the 43 people tagged in the farewell-to-San Francisco video Brass uploaded to Facebook do. One of them forwarded it to us with this note: "This is the most painful shit I've ever seen in my life from Engage.com's Julian Brass." Really, how would we not share it with you after such a cold tribute from a so-called friend? Our favorite part is when Brass points the camera at his Francisco Street home, where he lived for all of a year and a half, and says, "I always just said: It's the pink one guys; it's the pink one. Ha ha." After viewing our excerpt, go check out Brass's full seven-minute video, slideshows and all. We're out of words to describe it, having previously banned them all.
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Comment by estelle625: @amazinggrace if you things means throwing a girls bag and shoes out of his apt when she refuses to do... more » | Other threads
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exits
Facebook CTO leaves a company that's graduating from high school
The Facebook Prom was prophetic, signaling farewells, graduation, and the ending of teenage ties. As his colleagues were preparing to dance the night away at the Metreon, CTO Adam D'Angelo, a high school buddy of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was saying his farewells. BoomTown reports that D'Angelo, 23, is leaving the company because "his responsibilities no longer fit well with his skills and interests." Even as the company tries to recreate a high-school environment to keep its employees tightly knit, Zuckerberg's own social network is fraying. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Fidel on the Roof: @Bornean: Yo, can you pass what you're smoking to me? Must be good stuff! more » | Other threads
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elliot schrage
Facebook can have him
Commenter Facebookcanhavehim shares this thought on Google überflack Elliot Schrage's prospective departure for Facebook:It has nothing to do with Eric's philandering. It has everything to do with the fact that Elliot sucks and is being run out of the company. No idea he has held on so long considering how ineffective he has been. From the inside I can affirm his team hates him. The other executives see him as impotent, reckless, and self-promoting.
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By Owen ThomasComment by matto: @Nicholas Carlson: I suspect its some sort of halfassed site promotion or pagerank scam. more » | Other threads
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exits
Elliot Schrage, Google's top flack, interviewing at Facebook
Are Elliot Schrage and Sheryl Sandberg about to stage a policy-wonk reunion in Palo Alto? When she worked at Google, Sandberg, now Facebook's COO, helped recruit Schrage from the Council on Foreign Relations. Having taken charge of Facebook PR, Sandberg is looking to hire a VP of communications with experience in public policy. Since most Valley flacks are weak in knowing the ways of D.C., that job description is tailor-made for Schrage. Sources tell us he has already interviewed at Facebook. And we hear he's more than ready to leave Google, chiefly because of its philanderrific CEO, Eric Schmidt. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by buzzzkilll: If Schmidt really was getting nasty with Marcy, all he has to show for it now is Ted Waitt's crabs. more » | Other threads
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exits
Google loses another exec to Facebook
Google director of business development Ethan Beard has resigned from the company and will begin work at Facebook. Why Facebook over Google? Beard answered: More » -
exits
Owen Van Natta was't fired, "we just decided it was time for him to go"
As congratulations rain down on new Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, her predecessor, Owen Van Natta, is left under a cloud. Van Natta left Amazon.com for Facebook when it was barely out of an Ivy League dorm, and turned it into a company with plans to take over the world. Then he got demoted. Then he abruptly left. Why? Because he wanted to be a CEO someday. But his ambitions did not match his talents, Mark Zuckerberg now implies. In Zuck's words: "With bringing in a COO, we just decided it was the right time for him to go and do that." Somewhere else. Ah, then we shouldn't call it a firing.
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Comment by OddTODD: Somehow I think Owen will be fine with severance package in hand he will be seen as a really smart... more » | Other threads
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exits
Sheryl Sandberg's two reasons for leaving Google
Why did Sheryl Sandberg leave Google to become Facebook's COO? Let's be real: Even if Facebook one day grows into its $15 billion valuation, it's unlikely to unseat the world's dominant player in online advertising. Sandberg had a great gig running AdWords, the engine of Google's profit. Her job had only two drawbacks: sales chief Omid Kordestani and Shona Brown, head of business operations. Sandberg disliked those two executives enough to be open to Facebook's approach. Mark Zuckerberg, a suggestion on how to spend a very small part of Microsoft's $240 million: Send Kordestani and Brown thank-you gifts.
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By Owen ThomasComment by vandalay: What's policy on using Google's company jet to fly down to Mexico for your husband's birthday?!? more » | Other threads
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exits
Owen Van Natta out of Facebook
Once Mark Zuckerberg's right-hand man, Owen Van Natta is leaving Facebook in a couple of weeks. Van Natta, who openly aspired to be CEO — of Facebook or another company — was demoted from COO to vice president of revenue operations last summer. While he downplayed it at the time, it was a clear signal Van Natta was getting no closer to the executive suite. One question: Will Facebook buy back Van Natta's shares at the company's $15 billion valuation? Private companies sometimes do that for departing executives. Whether Facebook extends that lucrative courtesy to Van Natta will be the best indicator of ator of how friendly his departure was. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sggrf: @ThatKid: I totally believe you and you're right. We used one of those outside firms. They can credibly come up with... more » | Other threads
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the chart
Microsoft and Yahoo employees eye exits on Facebook
In November, First Round Capital VC and blogger Josh Kopelman bought a pair of ads on Facebook targeted to the Yahoo and Microsoft networks, asking "Leaving Yahoo?" and "Leaving Microsoft?" Clickthrough rates were low. Only 0.3 percent clicked on the Yahoo ads, and the Microsoft ads drew no clicks at all. But after Microsoft's recent $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo, the companies' employees seem more eager to leave. Now, 0.86 percent of Facebook users who saw the Yahoo version of the ad clicked, and 1.19 percent of Microsoft employees targeted clicked on their ad.
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Comment by tiffany98121: i didn't even realize they had ads. that's what you get with adblock i guess. more » | Other threads
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exits
Microsoft dealmaker Bruce Jaffe going startup
While Microsoft has yet to come up with a search engine that wows consumers, it has successfully wooed Wall Street with its push into online advertising. Alas for Microsoft, it's losing a key dealmaker. Bruce Jaffe, a top corporate-development executive who helped engineer Microsoft's $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive and its $240 million investment in Facebook, is leaving the company. He's been interviewing around the Valley, but last we heard, he's decided to form his own startup. Anyone have more details on what he's up to? -
exits
Google "golden boy" defects to Facebook
Benjamin "bling" Ling, described as one of "Larry and Sergey's golden boys," is jumping to Facebook, reports Josh Quittner at Netly News. Ling will reportedly head the white-hot Facebook platform program, having previously succeeded with Google Checkout. Quittner says Google's stunning $600-plus stock price has backfired on the company, making it profitable for top staff to bail out now rather than waiting for more shares to vest. (Photo courtesy of AuctionBytes.com)
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By Paul BoutinComment by jjabez: God, have you tried to implement the Google Checkout API - sounds of gagging can be heard from across my... more » | Other threads
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quotable
"Not so well-kept secret in the Valley is that Google is freaking out because a lot of its folks are vesting soon and these greedy, restless bastards are looking for the next Big Score and right now that's looking like Facebook. So lots of Google talent is going to be streaming out the door to Facebook and all the free bus rides in the world aren't going to keep them locked in." — Forbes editor Dan Lyons, posing as Apple CEO Steve Jobs. [The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]
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Comment by ResearchZilla: hmmm....i seem to remember that a certain somebody around these valleywag comments had compiled a list of over 3 thousand... more » | Other threads
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