Back in 2001-2002, it was a nuclear winter in Silicon Valley. Thousands of dot-com startups closed shop. The IPO market dried up as well as venture funding. Oh, and it was tough for software engineers to find jobs.Interestingly enough, it was a boon for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) as it underwent an aggressive hiring spree, taking advantage of the situation in the market and picking up talent.
Well, it seems like Facebook has the same idea. According to an interview on Bloomberg, the company's young founder, Mark Zuckerberg, says he plans to increase the workforce by 50% this year (the company has about 1,000 employees). Simply put, there are many smart engineers to pickup.
Yet, this does not appear to be a case of indiscriminate hiring. Look at Facebook's recent move to bring Ivan Kirigin on board. He was the founder and CTO of Tipjoy, a social payments company that didn't get much traction. But such a service would be a strategic feature for Facebook, right?
Or, look at Facebook's deal to purchase Friendfeed. A key factor for the deal, was no doubt to buy some "brains" as the team included some top former Google engineers, including Paul Buchheit -- the mastermind behind Gmail.
While there is much risk to Facebook's hiring strategy, the fact remains that if the company wants to maintain its competitive edge -- especially against upstarts like Twitter -- there is no choice but to get aggressive.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The IPO Primer and The Complete M&A Handbook
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