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"Facebook Sets the Stage for IPO with New CFO," declared the Web-business news site Mashable -- a headline that Facebook said was highly premature.
The appointment of former Genentech CFO David Ebersman should not be interpreted as a signal that Facebook is gearing up for an initial public offering of stock, said Facebook spokesman Larry Yu.
"We're focused on building a company for the long-term," Yu said. Ebersman's experience "at one of the most respected companies in the world," he added, "will be invaluable as he partners with others on the management team to help take the company to the next level."
That "next level" was widely interpreted in March as an IPO after Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in a internal memo he was seeking a CFO with "public company experience" following the dismissal of former CFO Gideon Yu. The comment struck some observers as odd, since Yu had public company experience, though not at the CFO level.
With more than 200 million users worldwide, Facebook figures to someday launch a high-profile IPO that could prove lucrative even in a frigid economy.
Speculation declined with a recent $200 million investment from Russia's DST Technologies,
a deal that valued the company at $10 billion. DST also expressed an interest in increasing its 1.96 percent stake by acquiring more equity from vested shareholders, a plan that could reduce internal pressures for an IPO from employees eager to convert private stock and options into cash.
Ebersman, 39, has never led a startup through an IPO. "But since we have no imminent plans to go public, such experience is really of secondary concern," Yu said.
Genentech went public in 1980, long before Ebersman joined the biotech pioneer. He worked there for 15 years, starting as a business development analyst and moving up to the title of CFO and executive vice president from 2006 through April 2009, when Roche Group acquired the South San Francisco company in a $46.8 billion deal.
Ebersman adds to a brain trust of seasoned Silicon Valley executives advising the precocious Zuckerberg, who was just 19 when he founded Facebook in early 2004. In early 2008, Facebook hired former Google executive Sheryl Sandberg as its chief operating officer, and more recently added serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen -- known for Netscape, Opsware and Ning -- to its board of directors.
Facebook met with "many impressive candidates," Zuckerberg said in a press release. "We quickly recognized that David was the right person for Facebook. 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 Facebook."
One Twitter user, meanwhile, felt compelled to quip about a Genentech-Facebook alliance: "Only a matter of time before they replace your friends with clones."
Scott Duke Harris can be reached at sdharris@mercurynews.com or 408-920-2704.
To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mercurynews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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