by Jason Wilk on September 23, 2009
- Columbia Pictures and director David Fincher have set its core cast for “The Social Network,” the Aaron Sorkin-scripted drama about the formation of Facebook. Just who is going to play the part of the founders? We find out today from Variety that Jesse Eisenberg will play founder Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Timberlake will play Sean Parker (Napster co-founder who became Facebook’s founding president) and Andrew Garfield will play Eduardo Saverin (Facebook co-founder who fell out with Zuckerberg as the social network became a financial juggernaut).
- Production will begin next month in Boston and then move to Los Angeles. Scott Rudin, Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti and Cean Chaffin will produce. Kevin Spacey is executive producer.
- The pic focuses on the evolution of Facebook and how overnight success and wealth changes the lives of the classmates who created it.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://tinycomb.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter-big4.png)
by Jason Wilk on September 1, 2009
by Jason Wilk on August 10, 2009
- Facebook has acquired FriendFeed! No details yet on the acquisition price, but we are guessing somewhere in the $50M range. It’s not quite what Facebook wanted (they original tried to nab Twitter last month for a reported $500M only to be turned down). FriendFeed had been showing steady growth over the last year up until Twitter ‘really took off’ in the past quarter, continuing to grow at an impressive 20% a month.
- It’s clearly a good match. Over the last year or so, Facebook has “borrowed” quite a few of features that FriendFeed popularized, including the ‘Like’ feature and an emphasis on real-time news updates. Facebook has already built out some of FriendFeed’s functionality so there is some overlap, but there are still numerous ways FriendFeed beats out Facebook’s News Feed setup. FriendFeed works a little bit more like a forum, where people can comment on status updates (can’t do this on Twitter), and new activity pushes items back to the top (can’t do this on FB or Twitter).
- Facebook really scored by retaining the founding team which consists of an all-star cast of ex-Googlers such as Paul Buchheit, who is responsible for creating Gmail, pioneering some of Google’s early (and incredibly lucrative) advertising products, and coining Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto.
by Jason Wilk on July 13, 2009
- Facebook investors and employees (not executives however), are finally getting a chance to sell some of their stock. Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment firm that in May invested $200 million in Facebook, has made an offer to purchase up to $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing stock and option holders. This would be about $14.77 a share, valuing Facebook at about $6.5 billion; less than the $10 billion valuation of its previous investment (althogh for preferred shares).
“While individuals must make their own decisions about participating in this program, I’m pleased that the price D.S.T. is offering is much greater than the price originally considered last fall,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, in a statement. “This is recognition of Facebook’s growth and progress towards making the world more open and connected.”
- Employees and outside investors are relieved to liquidate some of their holdings. Facebook previously tried a stock buyback program, but it failed several times due to a lack of agreement on an internal valuation. Zuckerberg said this current offering has no effect on the company’s timeline to go public
by Jason Wilk on June 29, 2009
- Facebook quietly chose a new CFO today, months after getting rid of Gideon Yu, for not having enough ‘public company experience’. Former Genentech CFO David Ebersman was officially announced today as the man taking on the task of raising more money for the company and getting it ready to go public in the next 2-3 years. Ebersman has been at the biotech firm for almost 15 years and was relieved of his duties after Hoffman-La Roche acquired Genentech [they had their own CFO]
- Until now, former Netscape exec and VC Peter Currie has served as a stand-in for Yu since he left, although has not been an active financial exec. [Kara, AllThingsD]. Here is the full press release.
PALO ALTO, Calif.–June 29, 2009–Facebook today announced that David Ebersman, the former executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Genentech, the pioneering biotechnology firm recently acquired by Roche, will become the company’s chief financial officer.
Ebersman will report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder Mark Zuckerberg. He will oversee Facebook’s finance, accounting, investor relations, and real estate functions. He also becomes a part of the company’s executive management team, which directs all aspects of company strategy, planning and operations. Ebersman will formally start in September 2009.
“We received a lot of interest in the CFO position and had the opportunity to meet with many impressive candidates,” said Mark Zuckerberg. “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.”
“After meeting with Mark and the rest of the team, I was thoroughly impressed with everyone’s drive and sense of purpose to help people connect and share,“ noted Ebersman. “Mark is constantly pushing the company forward and he’s assembled a world-class team that is achieving remarkable results both for its users and as a business. I’m excited to join this effort and this new industry.”
Ebersman worked at Genentech for nearly 15 years. He served as the firm’s executive vice president and CFO from 2006 through April 2009, when Roche Group acquired the company. Prior to joining the company’s finance organization, he was senior vice president of Product Operations. He joined Genentech as a business development analyst. Previously, he was a research analyst at Oppenheimer & Company Inc.
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