Facebook named a new CFO today, his name is David Ebersman.  Ebersman has some prior CFO experience at other firms and should be a huge asset to Facebook.  I think the question that we have all been wondering about will soon be answered, and that question is, “when will we see the Facebook IPO?”

I suspect that it’s going to take a few months, possibly even a year for the new CFO to get a grasp on everything that Facebook has going on.  Let’s face it, from the onset Facebook hasn’t been your typical startup, they have been able to woo millions from angel investors and even pulled in way more than any web startup I have ever seen without facing up close and personal scrutiny from the government or SEC.  To put it bluntly, I am surprised that they have existed this long w/out going public.  The amount of money takes to fund an online community like Facebook would blow it’s users minds. 

One other thing that I am going to be paying close attention to is how Facebook plans to make money.  Sure, i know they have their ad sales, which are probably substantial, but probably not the complete answer.  I think that they missed the boat on the whole “vanity url” thing, that could have been epic.  Here’s the press release for those of you that might have missed it:

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.

 

Facebook | Press Releases

I am somewhat familiar with what all goes into the valuation process of a standard website, but I would know where to start estimating the value of a social network like Facebook, I can only imagine the work that went on behind closed doors to arrive at $10 Billion Dollars, whew! 

One thing that amazes me about the whole Facebook thing is how they have been able to remain a private company and raise so much capital, amazing!!!  I know that employee shares of Facebook were going for $10 a share a little while back (if you knew someone), but I am going to venture to say that that price has probably gone up a little bit.  I don’t see Facebook slowing down anytime soon…

Although that’s below the $15 billion valuation that was placed on the social network when Microsoft invested $240 million for a small stake back in 2007, it’s significantly higher than recent speculation that placed the value of Facebook as low as $2-3 billion.

As part of the deal, Facebook employees are cashing in some of their shares. According to a statement from the company “DST has indicated that it is planning to offer to purchase at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing common stockholders that would facilitate liquidity for current and former employees’ vested shares in the company.”

If the name DST doesn’t immediately ring a bell, it’s probably because most of its investments are outside of the US. But, so are most of Facebook’s users, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg points out. “We’ve worked hard to bring more than 200 million people – 70 percent outside of the U.S. – onto Facebook to share with friends, family and co-workers. A number of firms approached us, but DST stood out because of the global perspective they bring,” he said.

Recent stats show that Facebook has grown more than 300 percent in Europe in the past year, and is the number one or two social network in all countries except for Germany (#4), Russia (#7) and Portugal (#3).

Thus, DST would seem to make some sense strategically – one of its biggest investments is in Mail.ru, a top Russian-language site, and the company goes onto state in today’s release that its “main assets account for over 70 percent of all page views in the Russian-speaking internet and its social networks are the market leaders in more than 13 countries, addressing a combined population of more than 350 million.” In other words, expect Facebook () to continue to push hard into Europe, with a bit of help from its newest investor.

Facebook Raises $200M; Now Valued at $10 Billion