Facebook moving its headquarters
By Mark Milian, CNN
Facebook CTO David Ebersman announces the company is moving operations from Palo Alto, California, to nearby Menlo Park.
Menlo Park, California (CNN) -- In a few months, Facebook will have to update the address on its profile.
The fast-growing social networking company held a news conference at Menlo Park City Hall on Tuesday to announce that (surprise!) Facebook is moving operations to this suburban city, confirming rumors that had leaked out last week.
Facebook is relocating about six miles -- from Palo Alto, California, to an area in Menlo Park that includes the former Sun Microsystems offices. Facebook also plans to acquire two buildings owned by General Motors, a 400,000-square-foot plot adjacent to the 1-million-square-foot Sun campus.
The new territory was determined to hold 3,600 workers, but Facebook's assessors "believe the campus can support more people," they said at the news conference.
The company, which has expanded at breakneck speed since its founding in 2004, has more than 2,000 employees, including 1,400 in Palo Alto.
Facebook has already begun renovating the new buildings and plans to start moving 500 employees by mid-June. All of the company's San Francisco Bay Area employees will be based in Menlo Park by this time next year, the company said at the event.
Pat Burt, a Palo Alto councilman and former mayor, acknowledged Facebook's realistic concerns that his city didn't have ample space to accommodate the company's aggressive expansion needs.
Burt had hoped that Facebook would keep some employees at its original location and that Facebook had expressed interest in doing so, he said in an interview last week. But David Ebersman, Facebook's financial chief, said it's important to the company's corporate culture to have everyone working close together.
Moving headquarters "has an important impact on the identity of the company," Ebersman said. "Our current priority is to get everyone together."
Facebook is moving to an area of Menlo Park surrounding by a poor neighborhood called Bell Haven. Mayor Rich Cline is hoping the new tenant can spur a revitalization of that part of the city, he said in an interview and at the event.
Mark Zuckerberg, the company's founder who recently filed a restraining order against a man allegedly stalking him in person and on his own website, did not attend the announcement.
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
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