Facebook CTO Plans to Leave Company Later This Year

Facebook Inc. (FB) Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor said he plans to leave the world’s largest social-networking service to help start another company.

“While a transition like this is never easy, I’m extremely confident in the teams and leadership we have in place,” Taylor said on Facebook’s website.

Taylor will be starting a new company this year with Kevin Gibbs, who is an engineer at Google Inc. (GOOG), Taylor said. Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Google, confirmed by telephone that Gibbs is leaving the Mountain View, California-based company.

Taylor’s announced departure is less than a month after Facebook’s initial public offering as the company tries to ratchet up products and services to woo more developers and users to its site. Since its IPO on May 17, when it raised $16 billion, Facebook’s shares have tumbled on concerns ad revenue growth won’t keep pace with membership growth as more users access the service on mobile phones.

Taylor has been at Facebook since 2009, joining after the Menlo Park, California-based company bought FriendFeed, a social service startup. Taylor and three other Google employees had started FriendFeed two years earlier, providing a service that let people post videos and updates from other sites on the Web.

Facebook’s new services include a “Facebook Camera,” a mobile application that highlights members’ photos and the App Center, a new service that helps users find mobile software for their devices.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Bret and getting to know him as a friend and teammate,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “I’m grateful for all he has done for Facebook and I’m proud of what he and his teams have built.

Facebook shares gained 6.1 percent to $30.01, paring the stock’s loss since its IPO to 21 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net