Texas Governor Coaxes Facebook To Open New Office

Although it isn't quite a done deal, Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to have more or less ensured that Facebook will open a sales and operations office in Austin.  Perry's offered the company $1.4 million as an incentive to establish the branch and create some jobs.

Fittingly enough, Perry's office announced the development with a Facebook note.  In it, he stated, "Facebook's expansion in Austin will enhance the area's robust technology industry, create 200 jobs for Texans, and strengthen the economy in Central Texas."

There were also a few figures implying that $1.4 million isn't an insane bribe, as the Texas Enterprise Fund has already doled out more than $388 million to create another 52,000 jobs.

Finally, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, said, "We've been exploring various options around the U.S. to establish an additional online sales and operations office and we're grateful to the assistance we've received from the Governor's office and the state's leadership in discussing the possibilities in Austin. . . .  Austin, with its deep talent pool, would allow us to hire the high-caliber employees we need to properly serve the people, advertisers and developers that rely on our service."

Which all sounds very nice.  The one remaining step (aside from choosing a site and actually building and staffing the office) is to get the City of Austin's okay.   A vote should take place in the near future to settle that matter.

Twitter Puts Pixar’s CFO On Payroll

Twitter's at last found someone to be its chief financial officer, and the man appears to be more than qualified for the position.  Ali Rowghani actually comes to Twitter from Pixar, where he also held the title of CFO.

Pixar is, of course, the popular animation studio responsible for movies like Toy Story, The Incredibles, and WALL-E.  Disney bought it in 2006 for $7.4 billion, and Rowghani was present at the time, having started at Pixar in 2001.

Now, we'll get to see what he can do with one of the Web's more fashionable social sites.  But it's important to note that the company's COO has said Twitter's not going public this year, and it's also been a while since there have been any rumors concerning acquisitions.

Then here's one other interesting point: Rowghani might not be Twitter's biggest fan, since as the screenshot below shows, he's not what anyone would call a heavy user.

Anyway, Rowghani should officially join Twitter in March, according to Reuters, and CEO Evan Williams said that they're all concentrating on "creating value for our users and capturing the financial opportunities that result from it."

Twitter Not Ready For IPO Fortunes

"We’ve raised all this money. We’ve created this global brand…Now we have to go build the business that lives up to that valuation."

Twitter COO, Dick Costolo, January 20, 2010

And that, my friend, is why we won’t see a Twitter IPO this year. That, and this really obscure New Yorker reference:

“My view of our financial future is like that old New Yorker cover where the New Yorker looks at the view of the United States and the IPO is way out west somewhere,” Costolo said yesterday during a panel discussion at Bloomberg’s San Francisco bureau. “Bronx and Queens are our 2010 financial plan, and that’s what we’re focused on right now.”

You could argue, that Twitter needs to be closer to Madison Avenue than the Bronx, but I think we all get his point–Twitter’s just not ready to head west and make its fortunes in an IPO.

Aside from figuring out how exactly it plans to generate revenue, the other monkey on its back isn’t actually a monkey at all–it’s a whale!

The company really needs to figure out how to avoid such random outages. A few of these immediately prior to an IPO, and it won’t be just whales that are sinking–Twitter’s opening-day valuation won’t be able to tread-water either!

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Inactive Twitter Usernames Scheduled For Recycling

If you're not happy with your Twitter username - or if you are, but don't love Twitter and haven't logged in for a while - listen up.  The usernames attached to inactive accounts may soon be made available for the taking.

In fact, the release of idle usernames is almost sure to occur.  The cutoff regarding inactivity has probably been set, too - Martin Bryant found a policy referring to the automatic removal of accounts after six months.

The most important detail - when the big release will take place - is just a little fuzzy.  Bryant wrote, "We reached out to Twitter for comment . . . and a spokesperson for the company told me that the company plans to release all inactive usernames and deleted usernames in the future but doesn't have a date set yet."

So make preparations for the event as best you can, whether that means signing into a few accounts you've let collect dust or setting up a sophisticated email alert system for when a username becomes free.

Something of a land rush is practically guaranteed to occur, and insofar as that'll represent (and generate) more interest in Twitter, the company's decision to make this move is looking pretty smart.

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