• Mike Sheridan

    Project Playlist hires a second ex-Facebook exec

    A tipster tells us that Project Playlist, the online-music startup which has just hired former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta and raised $15 million, has hired Mike Sheridan as its CFO. Sheridan served less than a year at Facebook, where he was replaced by Gideon Yu.

    3:40 PM on Tue Nov 11 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    618 views, Comment

  • perks

    Facebook buying Jack Spade computer bags for employees

    A tipster reports overhearing two Facebook employees bragging about the Jack Spade computer bags bought for them by their employers. Facebook has some 700 employees; the Spade bags retail at the Apple Store for $99.95. If you figure Facebook got them for about half that price, it still shelled out $35,000 unnecessarily. Is this the kind of spending CFO Gideon Yu is trying to persuade Middle Eastern investors to underwrite?

    3:40 PM on Mon Nov 10 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,501 views, 15 comments

    Most discussed Mike Malone: Wow you're way behind Owen. They've been giving these bags to employees for at least 18 months. More interesting though more »

  • nerdspotting

    Facebook CFO in two places at once

    We've always been impressed by Facebook CFO Gideon Yu's ability to snooker investors around the world. The list of people he's taken for a ride include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Hong Kong telecom mogul Li Ka-Shing. Just last Friday, he returned from a trip to Dubai, where he tried to shake loose some petrodollars from the Middle Eastern emirate's sovereign wealth funds. Some people seem to think Yu is still in Dubai. Which would be quite a feat, considering he's been spotted in Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters multiple times this week. Perhaps he's using CNN's new hologram technology?

    12:00 PM on Fri Nov 7 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,267 views, 1 comment

    Latest by insidefb: gideon is a master jedi. don't mess with him! more »

  • gideon yu

    Facebook CFO's excellent Middle East adventure

    Gideon Yu is flying back from Dubai today, we hear. His coworkers at Facebook are surely anxious to know what gifts he's bringing back — and we don't mean the duty-free kind. TechCrunch reports he was there on a fundraising mission. The Persian Gulf's sovereign wealth funds are swollen with petrodollars. But Yu's assignment was tough. Maintaining the $15 billion valuation Facebook obtained from Microsoft and Hong Kong investor Li Ka-Shing in the face of a declining advertising market will require a lot of Yu's demonstrated slickness. But if Yu can squeeze cash out of Bill Gates, surely he can navigate a Middle Eastern bazaar. More »

    10:20 AM on Fri Oct 31 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    4,735 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed macbeach: I wonder if all of these things, not just Facebook, are reaching a saturation point. They are fun to try, but more »

  • mythbusting

    Why Facebook borrowed $100 million for servers

    Technologists are instinctively averse to debt. The cycles are too swift and mistakes too punishing, the conventional wisdom says, to subject a startup to the burden of debt; cash is better spent on growth opportunities than interest. But Facebook has never followed the usual script for a startup, and its CFO, Gideon Yu, is no herd-follower, either. No wonder that the news that Facebook is leasing $100 million worth of servers, after raising a $360 million round of venture capital from Microsoft and Li Ka-Shing, is causing such a ruckus — and some misconceptions. Here are the instant myths that have arisen: More »

    9:20 AM on Mon May 12 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    6,578 views, 15 comments

    Latest by Goose Spruce: Has anyone tried to figure out how to make money with social sites? more »

  • comebacks

    Frank Quattrone's rebound relationships

    Having cleared his name of obstruction-of-justice charges, former Credit Suisse tech investment banker Frank Quattrone is launching his own boutique firm, Qatalyst Partners. Several big Valley names volunteered quotes for the press release. It's not surprising that Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who's made his own moral missteps, would be forgiving of Quattrone. But Gideon Yu, Facebook's CFO, makes a more curious appearance. He gave a statement applauding Quattrone's partner Jonathan Turner, not Quattrone himself. But still, it amounts to an endorsement. Does Yu really think Quattrone did nothing wrong? Or, as a minister's son, is he just expressing the highest form of the Valley's belief in the power of redemption?

    5:40 PM on Tue Mar 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    671 views, Comment

  • careers

    Facebook chef job a recipe for striking it rich

    Remember Charlie Ayers, Google's first executive chef, who retired in 2005 after making millions of dollars on the Google IPO? All those cooks who passed on that job now have a second chance, according to Inside Facebook. After years of catering takeout lunches, the social network is hiring its own chef. With Facebook poaching so many Google employees who are used to chef-cooked meals, it's no surprise that they'd hire someone who knows how to poach eggs. But check out this curious line in the job description: "Be accountable for the financial aspects of the F&B department ensuring a profitable operation." Is penny-pinching CFO Gideon Yu insisting that employees pay for their meals? The full job description: More »

    2:27 PM on Mon Jan 21 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    2,276 views, 1 comment

    Latest by WillVille: OMG: Prepare to be stunned. I've figured out how Yahoo! and AOL can recapture their former relevance. Let Facebook employees catch more »

  • gideon yu

    Facebook moneyman aims to "take over world"

    There are these small bands of people who are trying to take over the world. This is so much more fun than working at a hedge fund or an investment bank.
    — Gideon Yu, having a Dr. Evil moment in describing his startup career as CFO at YouTube and then Facebook. [Portfolio]

    11:40 AM on Wed Nov 7 2007
    By Owen Thomas
    1,109 views, Comment

  • deals

    Facebook raising $50 million or so, says board member

    Yesterday, Accel Partners VC Jim Breyer, who sits on Facebook's board with Peter Thiel and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, made an offhand comment about Facebook's unfinished financing round. Microsoft has already put in $240 million, and Facebook's board has authorized sleepless CFO Gideon Yu to go raise another $260 million. Here's what Breyer said to Silicon Alley Insider: "$50 million, $100 million, $200 million." He said it with a shrug, but we think his insouciance was feigned. That's because Facebook already has a firm commitment in hand for that $50 million Breyer mentioned. The board is still deciding whether to take that money.

    1:44 PM on Fri Nov 2 2007
    By Owen Thomas
    360 views, Comment

  • facebook

    Facebook funding round still open

    A company is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. So after Microsoft paid $240 million for 1.6 percent of Facebook, the company's value on paper became $15 billion. Funny thing is, Facebook hasn't yet found another investor to agree to that number. The night Facebook signed its Microsoft deal, we reported a rumor that CFO Gideon Yu was close to bringing in another $500 million from private equity or hedge funds. Not true: the board had only authorized raising another $260 million. But even that hasn't come through yet. More »

    9:57 AM on Thu Nov 1 2007
    By Nicholas Carlson
    937 views, 5 comments

    Latest by Filament: @DaveMcClure: That Facebook can do some all-cash deals doesn't invalidate Mizznike's point. If Microsoft overpaid (as they have a strong incentive more »