Catch Yu later

Chief Financial Officer Gideon Yu has been pushed out of Facebook. The news went public when the social network stated its intentions to seek a replacement "with public company experience."

Yu's departure was announced internally first, but when news sources began to pick it up, Facebook's statement on the matter positioned it as a possible pre-IPO move.

It also released financial details for the first time, reports Advertising Age. Revenue is expected to rise 70% in '09 versus '08, and profitability is expected by 2010.

"Despite the poor economic climate, we are pleased that our financial performance is strong and we are well positioned for the next stage of our growth," a statement reads.

"We have retained Spencer Stuart to lead our search for a new CFO and will be looking for someone with public company experience."

AdAge took pains to point out that while the option of filing an IPO is clearly on the table, no such filing is immediately imminent.

This week BusinessWeek reported Facebook has been sniffing around for $100 million in debt financing for additional servers. (Its growing userbase is expected to exceed 200 million users before month's end.)

In late 2007, Microsoft invested $240 million for 1.6% of Facebook, effectively valuing the company at $15 billion. Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz departed the company in October '08; and in November, Mark Zuckerberg personally dismissed insinuations that the socnet has been seeking venture funding outside the country.