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According to Gideon Yu's Facebook profile, the man is a fan of "Facebook," "Facebook Platform," and "The Facebook Effect, by David Kirkpatrick."  These repetitive entries are likely to be deleted in the near future, however, because Yu is leaving his position as chief financial officer of the company.

 

Jessica E. Vascellaro was alerted to Yu's move by "a person familiar with the matter."  His departure has since been confirmed by Facebook representatives, who added only that someone named Spencer Stuart will lead the search for a replacement.

The development sends some odd signals.  Yu came from YouTube, and before that, Yahoo, so he's definitely an important name.  It was during Yu's time at Facebook that funding poured in from Microsoft, Li Ka-shing, and the Samwer brothers, too, so Yu obviously has a knack for getting supporters to loosen their purse strings.

Still, Facebook doesn't appear to be letting all these details slow it down.  Facebook's spokespeople stated that the company "will be looking for someone with public company experience," and also referred to "the next stage of our growth."

An IPO might be in Facebook's somewhat-near future regardless of the recession, then.