Fast-growing online social network Facebook, a company that has refused several acquisition offers, said it soon plans to go public.  

 

Gideon Yu is a well-known executive in the Silicon Valley. He also worked with Google, YouTube and Yahoo. However, no explanations about his exit from Facebook were given. All Facebook said was that it already hired an executive search firm to find a replacement for Mr. Yu.

  

“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,” a Facebook spokeswoman, Brandee Barker, said in a statement. “We are grateful to Gideon for his contributions to Facebook and what we are trying to accomplish.”

 

Apparently, according to The Wall Street Journal report on the matter, the problem was that Mr. Yu’s job has grown to be much more difficult as the company has struggled to raise more money at lower valuations. However, according to Facebook spokesman Larry Yu (not a relative of Gideon Yu), the company does not need to raise more cash in order to generate profit, but “would entertain the idea.” 

 

Mr. Yu’s departure is the latest move in a shakeup in the company’s executive ranks that falls under Facebook’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberb’s plans to revamp the social-networking site. In 2008, Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook’s one-time head engineer, and Adam d’Angelo, Facebook’s chief technology engineer, both left the company which currently has about 800 employees. 

 

Gideon Yu was in charge when Facebook got its last round of financing back in 2007. The financing also included a $15 billion investment from Microsoft.