Mark Zuckerberg: The evolution of a remarkable CEO
About six months ago, critics pummeled Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
He’d made questionable management decisions, or so it appeared from the outside. He’d fumbled the site’s redesign and botched the company’s terms of service agreement — moves that whipped up negative publicity and user backlash. Some people asked whether it was time for Zuckerberg to go.
Six months later, those critics have gone. The company is enjoying astounding momentum — blowing through user growth forecasts… Continue Reading
Facebook’s Zuck is on a personal mission — may expand staff 50 percent this year
updated
Facebook plans to expand its staff by as much as 50 percent this year, seeking to hire engineers now that the economic recession has made it less expensive to find them.
Significantly, we’re being told that Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg himself is leading on the hiring front, picking up the phone and calling people he knows in search for great employees. According to interviews we’ve had in recent days, Zuck has over the past year… Continue Reading
Roundup: Brin backs Parkinson’s study, iPhone gets shakable ads, and more
Google co-founder backs major Parkinson’s study – Sergey Brin says he plans to contribute money and DNA to a study run by his wife Anne Wojcicki’s startup 23andMe.
Dockers introduces shakable iPhone ad — Users can shake their iPhones to make urban street dancer Dufon perform his moves. The ad was created by mobile ad company Medialets.
Twofish launches analytics platform for social games — The company’s Elements platform will help social game and virtual world developers understand and make… Continue Reading
Mark Zuckerberg, top VCs drop off Forbes’ billionaire list
Financially, it’s been a tough year for almost everyone, even the absurdly rich. Some of the tech world’s richest men are billionaires no more, according to Forbes’ new list of the world’s billionaires. Among the most notable dropoffs (for VentureBeat readers) are Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Sequoia Capital’s Michael Moritz and venture capital pioneer Arthur Rock.
Last year, Zuckerberg (then 23) was estimated to be worth $1.5 billion, making him the world’s youngest billionaire. Now he’s lost… Continue Reading
Roundup: European leaders agree on rescue plan, Microsoft to release Silverlight 2 and more
Here’s the latest action:
European leaders agree on financial rescue plan — The move will involve the injection of billions of Euros into banks in Germany, France and other countries. It was spurred by a similar British plan announced last week.
Memeorandum Colors visualizes political bias — The new Firefox extension/Greasemonkey script identifies the bias of the different publications on political news aggregator site Memeorandum.
Microsoft to release Silverlight 2 on Monday? — The company says it has “a significant announcement… Continue Reading
Facebook confirms Andreessen as its newest board member
Marc Andreessen, early web technology pioneer and veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has officially joined Facebook’s board of directors, according to a rather interesting press release just put out by the company.
Andreessen, as many of our readers already know, is currently the co-founder of a create-your-own social network service called Ning. When the Andreessen-Facebook board rumor first came out nearly two months ago, we and many others wondered how that conflict would be managed. Here are… Continue Reading
ConnectU to Facebook: We were just kidding about that settlement
It looks like social networking site ConnectU’s lawsuit against Facebook may not be over yet. Although the two companies agreed to settle in April (and have since signed the paperwork) ConnectU attorney John Hornick told a judge yesterday that his clients want to pull out of the deal, according to Bloomberg News.
Since reaching the agreement, Hornick said ConnectU has found instant messages on Facebook’s computers that are a “smoking gun” backing the company’s allegations. U.S…. Continue Reading
Q&A with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, on hiring, growth, and its platform
Facebook has just hired a new COO, Sheryl Sandberg of Google (our coverage). So I talked with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg today, to get some more context on her hire and how it fits in with the company’s larger plans.
In the Q&A below, Zuckerberg says he plans to continue on as CEO — indefinitely. He also says the company’s monetization efforts are going well, and that its platform will evolve to further help developers… Continue Reading
Facebook hiring new #2 to face growth, challenges — vote now
Third party traffic data shows Facebook usage dropping off in core markets — like these numbers just in from Hitwise (see graph, below) — even as the company struggles to do things like monetize and improve important projects like its developer platform. Facebook is moving out of its rosy childhood and into adolescence, assumably re-shuffling its executives to cope with its challenges.
So who should help founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg lead the company? Before… Continue Reading
Zuckerberg talks Facebook financials: Making money, but paying for growth
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg apparently told his employees about the company’s financial state in some detail during a company meeting yesterday, Kara Swisher reports.
The numbers aren’t particularly surprising and if anything highlight the company’s stated plans to build out its operations and get a lot bigger — and hopefully profitable — before looking for an exit strategy.
Facebook revenues in 2007 will end at $150 million (incidentally, the amount many people thought Facebook should sell… Continue Reading
Roundup: Google and Sprint, VC tax, future of VCs, and more
1) Rumor: Google to buy Sprint?
2) The U.S. House of Representatives passes VC tax
3) Berkeley Bionics brings exoskeletons to market
4) Fox Interactive Media may start its own ad network
5) Railpower Technologies to steam on, for now
6) Zuckerberg, speaking grandly
7) Are Facebook’s ads illegal in New York?
Murdoch calls Facebook a phonebook
9) Sprint and WiMax startup Clearwire have ended plans to form a joint venture
Rumor: Google to buy Sprint? – The rumor surfaced yesterday, here, suggesting that… Continue Reading
Zuckerberg: Facebook is wrapping up financing
Here at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, the chat with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was the first major draw. The reason: The company, the hottest subject in Silicon Valley, is reportedly in discussions with Microsoft, Google and Yahoo about taking a large investment from them. Only one of them is likely to win the honor.
One dominant rumor is that Microsoft wants to own a five percent stake in Facebook, at a valuation… Continue Reading
Who founded Facebook? Aaron Greenspan says he came up with the idea first
Harvard student Aaron Greenspan says he came up with the idea for Facebook before Mark Zuckerberg founded the popular company of the same name.
Greenspan’s claims, backed up by emails, are the latest salvo in the controversy surrounding the true origins of the social networking company. His claims have surfaced before, but in a New York Times story just published, Greenspan goes to greater lengths at proving his case.
In 2003, Greenspan sent an email to Harvard… Continue Reading
Introducing “Causes on Facebook”
updated
Serial entrepreneur Sean Parker’s new philanthropy focused company, Project Agape, launches tonight, with a special version of its software tailored for Facebook users.
It is called Causes on Facebook.
Just as significant as its launch, however, is its intent to showcase the strengths of Facebook’s new “Platform,” a set of tools to allow developers to build applications upon Facebook. More on that in a second.
Project Agape is the most ambitious social network we’ve seen that lets people… Continue Reading
Facebook “definitely” not for sale
Facebook, the social-networking Web site courted by Yahoo, isn’t for sale, board member Peter Thiel tells Bloomberg.
“It’s going to remain an independent company,” Thiel said in an interview last week. “The plan is to actually build it, maybe at some point take it public, but definitely not to sell it.”
Thiel said the site is actually worth $8 billion or more, citing the site’s college-aged users, according to Bloomberg. He said the company is… Continue Reading
Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund
The Founders Fund, the venture firm led by former PayPal chief executive Peter Thiel, has hired Sean Parker, the controversial entrepreneur, who has just turned 27, as a managing partner.
Parker somehow attracts attention wherever he goes. He has already launched three well-known companies. At 19, he co-founded Napster, and his cheekiness drew anger from the recording labels, which eventually shut down Napster with lawsuits. Parker told VentureBeat last week, in an interview, that his… Continue Reading
Roundup: LinkedIn’s German nemesis, more on Google, Web 3.0?, and Zuckerberg’s flip-flops
The latest in tech-land:
German competitor rains on LinkedIn’s parade — LinkedIn co-founder Konstantin Guericke flew to Germany to manage the opening of a new German Web site there. Upon his arrival, however, LinkedIn’s German competitor, OpenBC announced it plans to go public within the next six months on the German and Swiss exchanges, depending on market conditions. Seemed a coincidence for the company to make the statement, and perhaps an attempt to grab the headlines? The… Continue Reading
“Young Guns” form secret Silicon Valley society
That’s what Rolling Stone wants you to believe, in its latest edition. In a story called “Baby Billionaires of Silicon Valley,” Rolling Stone catches up with a group nine entrepreneurs who get together to strategize. This is another hype job, since none of these people are billionaires. (Update: Blake Ross, in comment below, says this is no secret society, and headline is wrong.)
From the piece:
That’s why they’ve gathered here tonight. This is one of the… Continue Reading
Facebook responds, bolsters privacy options for ‘”feed” features
Facebook’s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for the “feed” features the site released earlier this week, and unveiled some corrections.
Facebook has bolstered privacy controls, which is fully explained here (if you are a member). Zuckerberg blogged about his thoughts early this morning.
Here is the gist:
Somehow we missed this point with Feed and we didn’t build in the proper privacy controls right away. This was a big mistake on our part,… Continue Reading
Facebook launches “News Feed” and “Mini Feed” — as YouTube invades turf
Facebook has just made two big changes. Facebook’s Ruchi Sanghvi has blogged about it here.
First, Facebook has released “News Feed,” a feature that that appears on your homepage to let you know what is happening in your social circles. It pulls in the latest information about your friends or other contacts, notifying you for example when your secret crush breaks up and becomes available for dating again.
Second, it has released “Mini-Feed,” which appears in each… Continue Reading