

Why leave Google to join Facebook? - ddodge
http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2010/11/why-leave-google-to-join-facebook.html

======
michaelhart
I imagine most people want the pre-IPO stock. That's the only reason I could
honestly conceive. It's the sad truth of the world we live in. Facebook is,
like MySpace, always at risk of being overwhelmed by the next social go-to
website. Application developers follow the users, not the platform.

~~~
brown9-2
This is a commonly cited reason, but in reality, how many employees can be
given pre-IPO stock before the company ends up with so many owners that
they're forced to file for IPO?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the number of owners that a
privately-held company can have before being forced to go public is only 300.

~~~
dstein
Employees would typically only be given options, not actual stock. I might be
wrong, but I think they can give as many options as they want. And as anyone
who has been granted options knows, options usually end up being worthless.

------
cool-RR
If I'm not mistaken, (please correct me if I'm wrong,) Don Dodge's _job_ is to
do PR for Google. So this seems like just band-aid for the bad PR from Lars
Rasmussen's departure to Facebook.

~~~
michaelhart
Well, I really don't think there's much to do here.

In this case, Google wasn't responsible for Wave's failure to gain traction.
Not to mention, Google keeps their employees quite happy AFAIK. I'm sure
Wave's death played a key role in the switch, but honestly, that's of no fault
to Google.

Imo, it's bad PR for Lars, not Google. It shows he follows the money, or at
the very least, allowed his ego to define him.

------
bhiggins
the people that are leaving google to join facebook are doing it mainly for
the same reason they joined google in the first place: status.

