Facebook's Technology Chief To Leave: Who'll Be Next?

Facebook technology chief Bret Taylor has announced he is leaving the social media company later this summer to start up a new venture with Google App Engine founder Kevin Gibbs. According to TechCrunch, Taylor’s departure will not be the first as a number of Facebook’s longer-term executives “have hit their four year stock cliffs, and the 90 day IPO lockout fast approaches.”

Taylor used a Facebook status update to announce the change after the market closed. While Taylor wrote that he is “extremely confident in the teams and leadership we have in place” and said he was proud of some recent developments (Facebook Camera and integration with Apple products), CNET’s Paul Sloan observes that “there has to be some anxiety at the company and potentially among investors.” Besides Facebook’s main platform, Taylor oversaw Facebook’s mobile operations — and mobile is the very area that the company has come under fire for, due to Facebook’s failure so far to make a profit from its quickly growing mobile user base.

TechCrunch‘s Alexia Tsotsis also says she has heard of a “modified hiring freeze” at Facebook “due to the IPO fallout.” While Facebook’s May 17th IPO was greeted with much fanfare, the share price has stayed below the initial price ($38); on Friday, it closed at $30, 21 percent below the initial IPO price.

More than 40 lawsuits have been filed by shareholders who contend Facebook withheld the company’s revised growth figures from them. The SEC is undertaking an investigation about whether the stock price was too high, and why Facebook and its lead underwriter Morgan Stanley significantly increased the number of shares available in the week before the IPO. According to Bloomberg, the SEC is also investigating CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s power and specifically his “ability to designate a successor, and the implications of being a ‘controlled company.’”

Taylor’s departure portends more than might be apparent. Tsotsis also comments: “Facebook has had a monopoly on the best and brightest engineering talent for the past couple of years and it’ll shake the Valley to its core.”

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Donna B.

6:53AM PDT on Jun 18, 2012

Facebook has never interested me. Who cares?

June 18
send a green star

Christine C.

4:30AM PDT on Jun 18, 2012

Thanks

Winn A.

4:14PM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

June 17
send a green star

Dawn W.

12:19PM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

I think maybe FB won't be on top of the world much longer.

I never understood the obsession.Held out for as long as I could,but eventually caved.So much happens on FB,and I was tired of missing out.But I don't do much with my own page.I don't have time for that crap.

Juliet D.

10:09AM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

Starting new companies is a good thing. Let's not over-analyse this.

Peter G.

9:30AM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

There must be a huge amount of technology in creating a message board. Tea, right. What I detest is the fact that so much of the news media requires a facebook account to post. I believe that those policies violate my "freedom of speach" rights.

I call on Care2 to remove facebook from this site.

Teresa W.

9:18AM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

Zuckerberg?

g d c.

8:59AM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

hmm...

Bill C.

8:33AM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

Not a FB member

I may join if it works because this site sure does not

Jen M.

8:15AM PDT on Jun 17, 2012

The mass exodous continues...