【史提觀點】Face the Facts; Back to Basic

37歲的CFO被25歲的CEO「請下來」---因為Facebook想搞IPO(股票上市)！
從以下這篇報導討論區的讀者留言可以感受到：關心經營績效的人並不看好Facebook的上市計劃，尤其現在美國經濟狀況不佳，許多Facebook的服務已經不算什麼特別感動人心的創新了！它成立之初所呈現的願景與「商業利益的想像」也未發酵，滿可惜的！

許多人在創業之初擬訂的營運計畫書都充滿理想性，但那份理想說明書中對於「花多少錢的詳細計畫」往往多於「限定時間內能賺多少錢」的說明。

從老闆的角度來看：Mark Zuckerberg當然會想執行他的個人意志，畢竟公司是他創辦的，搞不出名堂其他人最多一走了之，但他不僅賠上一世英名還得損失大筆財富，但真實的商業世界中，又有多少人能夠這樣單打獨鬥闖盪出一番成果呢？「領導」最難的地方就在於要讓人跟著你走又不能只是呆呆地跟著呀！

戳(Poke)不出錢，一切都很難繼續下去…


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Facebook Ousts Chief Financial Officer Gideon Yu
Posted by: Spencer Ante on March 31
Very surprising news out today in Silicon Valley. Facebook has let go of its chief financial officer Gideon Yu, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook spokesman Larry Yu confirmed to BusinessWeek that CFO Yu will be leaving the company. Now the big question is, why?
The WSJ’s Jessica Vascellaro speculates in her story that the company needs to get a new CFO because it is thinking of going public sooner than expected. The search for a replacement, she writes, is “likely to renew speculation that Facebook, which has previously said it hopes to go public within the next few years, is stepping up plans to do so despite the rocky economy.”
But this is hard to believe, given the rough IPO market and the fact that Facebook is not yet profitable on GAAP basis. However, the company said at the same time it announced Yu’s departure that it has produced positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, for the past five quarters and expects to be cash-flow positive in 2010. Moreover, the fact that Facebook let go of CFO Yu without having a replacement suggests that this was an unexpected move.
Yu’s departure comes as he was in the process of trying to raise money for the fast-growing startup—one of his primary responsibilities as a CFO. Last week, I broke the news that Facebook was trying to raise as much as $100 million in debt financing to pay for its rising technology costs.
Facebook may have a hard time raising money for reasons that go beyond the credit crisis affecting so many U. S. companies. The company received a rich $15 billion valuation when Microsoft took a stake in the startup in October of 2007. It would be very difficult if not impossible to find an investor willing to give Facebook a similar valuation given the steep drop in equity markets over the last year.
“It makes it harder to raise money now,” says one Valley CEO of the $15 billion valuation. “The capital strategy is the responsibility of the CFO. At the end of the day there is no one else to point to.”
In the meantime, here is Facebook’s official statement:
“Facebook confirms that CFO Gideon Yu will be leaving the company. Gideon has played an important role in helping us achieve our financial success, building a strong finance team and establishing the core financial operations of our company. We are grateful to Gideon for his contributions to Facebook and what we are trying to accomplish. Despite the poor economic climate, we are pleased that our financial performance is strong and we are well positioned for the next stage of our growth. We have retained Spencer Stuart to lead our search for a new CFO and will be looking for someone with public company experience.”

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/03/facebook_ousts.html

Related report:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123852657881174747.html#mod=testMod




http://www.bnext.com.tw/FocusDay_1813

創辦人佐克伯領導無方？Facebook主管紛離職
（bnext.com.tw編輯部撰文＝鄭君仲）社交網站Facebook的人氣有增無減，但近來Facebook的管理階層卻開始紛紛走人，例如營收長范‧納塔（Owen Van Natta）、產品副總裁柯勒（Matt Cohler）都在這一年內陸續離開，財務長吉迪恩‧余（Gideon Yu）也在三天前離職，這也多少影響了Facebook上市的計畫。這些高階主管的走人，據傳導火線就是Facebook執行長馬克‧佐克伯（Mark Zuckerberg）個人獨斷的領導風格。一手創辦Facebook的佐克伯，不僅讓Facebook成為現今最受歡迎的網站之一，也讓自己成為全球最年輕的億萬富翁。但就像一夕爆紅的藝人，年僅24歲的佐克伯近來似乎也開始出現大頭症。不久前Facebook對網站介面做了重大的升级和更新，以提升訊息的更新速度，但大多數用戶對這次的更新都持反對的意見。只是佐克伯卻不太理睬用戶的意見，還對部分員工表示，像Facebook這樣的創新企業，不需太在意用戶的想法。根據國外科技部落格的消息，Facebook的前員工爆料，佐克伯現在很注重外在的公關宣傳，還聘了兩位擅長公關的高階主管，但卻把內部搞得越來越像一言堂，再也不像以前一樣容許不同的意見。員工也抱怨，佐克伯越來越自我中心，對商業雜誌裡對他的吹捧開始覺得理所當然，甚至認為自己是網路業的賈伯斯（Steve Jobs）。無風不起浪，佐克伯的確是個年輕的天才，但管理一間全球知名的企業，需要的可不只是衝勁和才華而已。如果他無法收斂自己、學習如何領導屬下，難保不會步上年輕時代賈伯斯的後塵，因為目空一切、獨斷獨行而黯然下台。
回【steve in the well】