Gideon Yu

Facebook is losing its CFO Gideon Yu. The Wall Street Journal broke the news earlier today, and speculated that the reason could be that Facebook might want to make an early bid for an IPO and wants a CFO with public company experience (which is complete nonsense). Yu was previously the CFO of YouTube. At Facebook, he was key to raising money from Microsoft at the famous $15 billion valuation, but as the economy soured he was not able to find as many takers at that same price, despite Facebook’s voracious need for capital to keep up with its growth. A Facebook spokesperson has ... Read Full Story

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Internet social network powerhouse Facebook has hired the former chief financial officer of Genentech as its CFO, filing a spot that has been empty for about three months. Facebook said on Monday that David Ebersman will join the company in September. Ebersman served as CFO of Genentech from 2006 until April this year, when the biotech company was acquired by Roche Holding. "His success in scaling the finance organization of a fast-growing company will be important to Facebook," Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. He noted that Ebersman oversaw Genentech's financial operations during a time when ... Read Full Story

David Ebersman, a former executive at biotech firm Genentech, was named Monday as Facebook's chief financial officer. Ebersman, 39, will formally start at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based online hangout in September. He replaces Gideon Yu, who left abruptly in March. Facebook said at the time it was looking for someone with "public company experience," even though Yu had previously worked at Yahoo Inc. — which is public. Ebersman hails from Genentech, which has been sold to pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG. "He was Genentech's CFO while revenue tripled, and his success in scaling the finance organization of a fast-growing company will be important to ... Read Full Story

About six months ago, critics pummeled Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He’d made questionable management decisions, or so it appeared from the outside. He’d fumbled the site’s redesign and botched the company’s terms of service agreement — moves that whipped up negative publicity and user backlash. Some people asked whether it was time for Zuckerberg to go . Six months later, those critics have gone. The company has enjoyed astounding momentum — blowing through user growth forecasts and becoming cash-flow positive earlier than expected . Recent management hires make the company look more impressive than ever. Zuckerberg remains firmly in charge. What happened? ... Read Full Story

Facebook will soon have its third chief financial officer in less than two years, the company announced today via a leak to the Wall Street Journal. Gideon Yu , the man who came back from Dubai empty handed , is out . The hunt for his successor is starting now. Facebook says this is about getting a CFO with public company experience ( “We have retained Spencer Stuart to lead our search for a new CFO and will be looking for someone with public company experience.” ). Which is complete nonsense (and poorly thought out nonsense at that), because Yu, after a short stint ... Read Full Story