Facebook chief financial officer stepping downApril 24, 2014 - 18:33 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Facebook's chief financial officer David Ebersman is stepping down from the company two years after he orchestrated one of the largest, and tumultuous, IPOs in history, the Wall Street Journal reports. Ebersman is leaving June 1 and being replaced by David Wehner, who joined Facebook in 2012 from Zynga to become the company’s vice president of corporate finance and business planning. Ebersman joined Facebook in 2009, leading the company into its initial public offering in May 2012. The former Genentech finance chief says he is returning back to the healthcare industry, without disclosing where. He has been unloading large chunks of his shares in recent months as part of a pre-arranged trading plan — in November, he unloaded almost 9% of his stake worth $42.6 million, setting a record for CFO stock sales. A month later, he sold $26.2 million more in stock. Ebersman is credited with driving the largest U.S. Internet offering of all time. But the much-hyped IPO was also highly controversial as the stock barely budged upward on IPO day and then plummeted in the following days and weeks, the Journal says. Investors blamed Ebersman and bankers led by Morgan Stanley for raising the offer price and boosting the number of shares offered in the IPO by 25%. But others called the IPO a success, as Facebook was able to raise about $10 billion and give selling investors the highest price possible. On Wednesday, April 23, Facebook also reported strong earnings, beating analysts’ expectations with a 72% increase in revenue. “Facebook’s business is strong and growing, and this quarter was a great start to 2014,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement Wednesday. “We’ve made some long term bets on the future while staying focused on executing and improving our core products and business. We’re in great position to continue making progress towards our mission.” Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Armenia to participate in key EU meeting for the first time ever National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has said that Armenia will for the first time participate in the Conference. U.S. reacts to Russia’s criticism of upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting Matthew Miller has weighed in on Russia’s criticism of an upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting. Lavrov sees ‘collapse’ of Russia’s ties with Armenia Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has underscored heightened tensions between Russia and Armenia. Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. |