With revenues of $16.5 billion and a cash hoard of $14 billion, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is certainly no longer a scrappy startup. In fact, Wall Street is getting somewhat concerned about the company's prospects, as seen with the recent decline in the once mighty stock price.
So it's no surprise that some of Google vets are leaving for other opportunities.
According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription), the latest to make a move is Sheryl Sandberg, who was the vice president for global online sales and operations (actually, her bio is still on the Google site).
Her next stop: the popular social networking site, Facebook.
Basically, she will help the site with its monetization. She definitely has the credentials. She joined Google in 2001 and was instrumental in the company's online advertising efforts.
Actually, there is skepticism that social networks can effectively scale their money-making capabilities, at least to the extent of standouts like Google. Interestingly enough, this was the sentiment on Google's recent earnings conference call.
There's no doubt that Sandberg gets many job offers. So her decision to go to Facebook is definitely significant – especially since the company's latest valuation was about $15 billion.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
