Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Platform Evangelist Benjamin Ling to Leave Facebook

Re: Platform Evangelist Benjamin Ling to Leave Facebook

netwurker mez — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:51:04 -0000

Faster than a speeding rebound:
http://kara.allthingsd.com/...

Ka-ching! + Ling lands sunny-side-up back in the good o' Google fold:

"Ben Lingâ€“the high-profile Facebook platform exec who came from Google less than a year ago and then up and left the social-networking site earlier this weekâ€“is about to head back to Google, this time taking a job leading monetization efforts at YouTube, according to several sources."

Re: Platform Evangelist Benjamin Ling to Leave Facebook

Daniel — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:48:35 -0000

Correct, he didn't even last a year there, which looks bad on a resume of course, but anyway... you're also correct that he probably didn't snag any vested options in the departure either. It would be very unusual (and foolish) for the board to allow options to vest sub-year, no matter how good a negotiator an employee might be.

Re: Platform Evangelist Benjamin Ling to Leave Facebook

Burak — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:17:10 -0000

A number of Facebook employees were able to sell some of their options recently (at $3-4bn valuation). There was a suggestion that some of these employees would take the money to set something up on their own. But Ling has been there less than a year, so I would be surprised if his options vested so early.

Re: Platform Evangelist Benjamin Ling to Leave Facebook

Carol — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:17:10 -0000

Why is he leaving?
Facebook is getting bigger and bigger.
alot question marks..

Re: Platform Evangelist Benjamin Ling to Leave Facebook

mike — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:34:18 -0000

See the pattern:

---
CTO leaves

VP Product Management leaves

Director of Platform Product Marketing leaves
---

These are 3 people one might assume would be intimately familiar with Facebook *as a business*. One might also assume that whatever their option grants were, they would make them sufficiently wealthy in a few years *if* Facebook could turn itself into a successful business.

So either (a) it really sucks to work there, so much so that it is more desirable to walk away from it then stick it out, or (b) it's just not *worth* it.

Time will tell I suppose.

Re: Platform Evangelist Benjamin Ling to Leave Facebook

Ted — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:08:00 -0000

Really interesting departure, strange. You wouldn't expect the guy managing the hottest part of the hottest web co. to leave so suddenly. Maybe the platform is not having the desired effect? Maybe he fought over money/options?