Chandlee takes top sales job at Facebook

Chandlee's role will be to build the UK sales team and work directly
with advertisers and agencies to develop commercial opportunities on the
site, according to sources.

In a statement, Yahoo! said: "Blake Chandlee has decided to leave Yahoo!
UK & Ireland. We are already in the process of recruiting his
replacement. In the interim, Glen Drury, vice-president Northern Europe,
and Javier Zapatero, vice-president of sales for Europe, will assume
direct responsibility for our UK media sales operations.

"Together with a world class media sales team, Yahoo! is in a strong
position to drive the further growth of its UK sales operations."

Yahoo! hired Chandlee as category development officer for consumer
packaged goods in October 2003, before promoting him to commercial
director for UK and Ireland in 2005.

It is believed that Chandlee is keen to work for an emerging brand and
Facebook fits the bill, having yet to take commercial advantage of its
dominant position in the UK marketplace.

Facebook has enjoyed a high rate of growth this year and August saw it
overtake MySpace as the most popular social network in the UK, according
to research firm Nielsen//NetRatings.

Facebook attracted 6.5 million unique users in August 2006 compared to
MySpace's 6.4 million, Nielsen//NetRatings revealed.

Facebook is also believed to have hired Netanel Jacobsson as director of
international business development, also based in London. Jacobsson, a
director at Beijing-based web browser Maxthon, knows the internet
industry, having worked in business development at AOL.

Facebook was set up by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004 as a networking
site for students, but it is in the last 12 months that the social
network has enjoyed rapid growth, having scrapped its student-only
policy in September 2006.

Microsoft supplies ad listings and search for Facebook in the US, but no
such deal has been struck in the UK.

Chandlee and Facebook were not available for comment as Media Week went
to press.