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ZEIT ONLINE: Goldman Sachs bringt sich mit dem Einstieg bei Facebook in eine strategisch günstige Position. Aber ist die Internetplattform wirklich 50 Milliarden Dollar wert?

Der Chef der Internet-Plattform Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, wirbt bei jeder Gelegenheit für mehr Offenheit: "Die Menschen teilen ihre Informationen immer schneller und offener. Das ist die neue soziale Norm." Nur wenn es um die Zahlen seiner Firma geht, gibt sich Zuckerberg verschlossen. Bis heute hat das Unternehmen keine belastbaren Zahlen über Umsatz, Gewinn oder Cash-Flow vorgelegt. Einen Börsengang, der für mehr Transparenz sorgen würde, lehnte Zuckerberg bisher kategorisch ab.

Die Intransparenz schadet ihm offenbar nicht: 500 Millionen Dollar zahlen die Investmentbank Goldman Sachs und der russische Investor Digital Sky Technologies für ein einziges Prozent an Facebook. Damit verdoppelt Zuckerberg sein rechnerisches Vermögen auf knapp 14 Milliarden Dollar. Das Portal, dessen Gründer und oberster Stratege gerade einmal 26 Jahre alt ist, ist auf dem Papier inzwischen 50 Milliarden Dollar wert - mehr als die Deutsche Bank. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> Von Rolf Benders | Klaus Stratmann | Ulf Sommer | Christoph Kapalschinski | Hans-Peter Siebenhaar | Dienstag, 04. Januar 2011

Facebook Unplugged: Bigwigs Quit, Building Own Businesses

Mark Zuckerberg

“Eventually, I felt Facebook became too big and too corporate, and that’s when I decided to leave.”

The statement came from the mouth of Facebook’s early employee Netanel Jacobsson, who was Facebook’s director of international business development before leaving Facebook last year.

Mr. Jacobsson is not alone, but the fact is, a number of Facebook’s early employees are giving their jobs and free food and laundry services to join the entrepreneur spree. The exponential growth of this social networking site has rocketed to an incredible successful height in just six years. It is the most successful start-up of the past decade and still an initial public offering is way off. However, the quick attrition amongst early Facebook employees has raised eyebrows.

Many of former employees have studied with founder Mark Zuckerberg in Harvard University. One of the cofounders Dustin Moskovitz who was the room partner of Mr. Zuckerberg, left his job to start his own venture 'Asana'. His company makes software that helps workers collaborate.

Another Facebook co-founder, Chris Huges, has started 'Jumo', a social network for “people who want to change the world.”

The departure of early employees in the Silicon Valley successes is not a new phenomenon. Earlier, PayPal’s alumni had started other successful ventures such as YouTube, Digg, Slide and Yelp, and invested in Facebook. They are better known as PayPal mafia. In the same way internet giant Google’s former employees are known as Xooglers.

However, Facebook do not seem worried about the mass exodus. Larry Yu, the spokesman of Facebook said that the parting of former employees were small and nothing to worry about. He also said that it was expected because early employees were all entrepreneurs at heart, so it was therefore not shocking.

“We don’t view attrition as a particular prominent issue for us at this time, “he said.

Former Facebook’s employees agreed on one point that the company was a great training ground. The resilience of Mr. Zuckerberg for not accepting advertisements during their infancy stage reflected his prudent vision. Also, they acknowledged their experience fetched them a great network of contacts. It is said that former employees communicate with each other for advice.