Who's Leaving Facebook Next?
The wheels seem to be coming off at Facebook after the ouster of CFO Gideon Yu. We hear another executive is leaving the social network to spend more time with his family.
After Yu left abruptly, CEO Mark Zuckerberg trotted out the tired time-with-family cliché to explain his departure. But in the case of Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya, the cliché seems to be literally true, and the departure temporary. Sort of. Palihapitiya, a former AOL executive who now heads Facebook's growth initiatives, has said he plans to leave the company altogether, but was persuaded to take a four-month paternity leave instead.
A less likely rumor we've heard: That COO Sheryl Sandberg has been issuing ultimatums, that either she goes or Zuckerberg. That doesn't square with Sandberg's style. She's an experienced Washington operative and former Google executive who always works behind the scenes to get what she wants. But she does have ties to Facebook investors, including venture-capital firm Accel Partners and Elevation Partners' Marc Bodnick, who happens to be her brother-in-law. Could she quietly be spreading the word that it's time for Zuckerberg to go? And if Zuckerberg gets wind of her efforts, could her time be up?