Facebook Inc Hires Twitter Inc Executive

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) continued to woo some of the most talented employees in the fast-paced world of technology today as the company announced the addition of a former Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) employee.

Rachael Horwitz

Twitter PR executive Horwitz moves on to the social network

Recode is reporting that Rachael Horwitz, who had been Communications Director with Twitter during a period of tremendous growth, including when the stock went public at $26 per share on November 7, 2013, is leaving for Facebook.  At Twitter, Horwitz supervised the company’s public relations for its products and consumer products. At Facebook, she will take the post of Director of Technology Communications.

After the stock IPO, the share price jumped to $69 at the start of 2014, its all time high, before dropping later in the spring to near $30. The stock price is currently trading at $37.66.

Twitter CFO moves to take over marketing function

MarketWatch reported that Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) employee, is increasingly putting his footprint on the Twitter’s strategic plans, having just taken over the marketing department. Communications, the area Horwitz worked, is typically under the same corporate categorization as marketing. “It’s quite the unconventional strategy to give a CFO control over the marketing department, particularly a CFO who has become infamous for publicly tweeting what should have been a direct message of private company data. His Twitter account was later hacked,” the Jennifer Booton article noted.

Business as usual at Facebook as another hi-profile tech manager joins firm

Facebook has a long history of conflict with other technology companies over its hiring practices. In 2014 it was revealed in court documents that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had made attempts to stop Facebook from poaching its employees, but Facebook Chief Operating Officer executive Sheryl Sandberg had rebuffed overtures to verbally agree to stop soliciting their tech employees.  She said at the time:

In or about August 2008, I was contacted by Jonathan Rosenberg, who was then at Google. Mr. Rosenberg expressed concern about what he described as the perceived rate at which Facebook could hire employees from Google. Around the same time, I also discussed a similar topic with Omid Kordestani, who was also at Google. I declined at that time to limit Facebook’s recruitment or hiring of Google employees. Nor have I made or authorized any such agreement between Facebook and Google since that time.

The move by Facebook to hire a former Twitter communications executive comes as the social network has received strenuous criticism of its content matching algorithm, while Twitter, which is said to be working with the same concept, has not received the same degree of critique.

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Facebook Inc Hires Twitter Inc Executive