Facebook has appointed David Ebersman, a former executive of
US biotechnology company Genentech, as its new chief financial
officer.
The move has increased speculation that Facebook is preparing to
offer shares to the public for the first time by filing for an
initial public offering (IPO), according to the
San Francisco Chronicle.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, said Genentech's
revenue tripled in the three years that Ebersman was CFO.
"His success in scaling the finance organisation of a
fast-growing company will be important to Facebook," he said.
In April,
speculation was rife over whether Facebook was planning to
float on the stock market after the exit of former CFO Gideon
Yu.
Facebook said in a statement that it had retained Spencer Stuart
to lead the search for a new CFO with public company
experience.
This led to rumours of a planned IPO, now boosted by the
appointment of Ebersman, who has 15 year experience at
Genentech.
Previously, he held positions as a senior vice-president of
product operations, a business development analyst and a research
analyst.