Facebook turns 7, may move to new office

PanARMENIAN.Net - Facebook Inc. celebrated its seventh birthday on February 4 and scheduled a news conference to announce plans for a new office, a move expected to bring the social-networking powerhouse's corporate flag from Palo Alto to Menlo Park.

According to published reports and real estate sources, Facebook plans to lease the former Sun Microsystems headquarters, a 57-acre business campus off the shores of San Francisco Bay in Menlo Park.

Facebook spokesman Larry Yu would not confirm those reports specifically but in a statement said the company was scheduling the news conference for Tuesday morning inside Menlo Park City Hall to discuss "a campus that will fit our long-term business needs. We look forward to sharing more at that time."

The move would transfer Facebook one city north on the Peninsula, moving across the Santa Clara County line into San Mateo County. Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone said the loss of Facebook may not cause a big property tax hit for his county because the company leases its current headquarters. However, Stone said the company had an assessed business property value, for equipment such as computers, printers and furniture, of about $63 million in 2010.

That was nearly double the $30.2 million in assessed business property value from 2009 and up from $16.7 million in 2008. Those numbers "are modest by Silicon Valley standards," Stone said, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Facebook places the number of active members at 500 million, although estimates based on the company's rate of growth show the number could be closer to 600 million. It has become one of the hottest technology companies in the world.

The total number of Facebook users in Armenia is 123 880, with 48% male and 52% female users.