Gibbs's Dilemma: Re-Election Slog or Facebook IPO Riches?
Here are Robert Gibbs employment options: join the fifty state campaign slog to help get President Obama reelected, or take a relatively leisurely multi-million dollar position at Facebook's Silicon Valley headquarters. Given the amount of blistering criticism he endured as White House spokesman, it's no wonder that Gibbs is reported to be leaning towards Palo Alto, according to The New York Times's Andrew Ross Sorkin.
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Citing anonymous sources, Sorkin writes that Facebook is seeking Gibbs for a "senior role in helping to manage the company’s communications" ahead of an initial public offering planned for 2012. Facebook is looking for someone to manage its delicate image and help better convey convoluted privacy policies to the public, and they're "pressing" the former White House official to consider the job sooner than he would have normally considered. To help lure him, Sorkin notes, his potential compensation package would include a hefty salary and valuable shares ahead of the IPO.
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Gibbs, for his part, is still discussing the offer with senior Obama administration officials and David Axelrod, the President's senior strategist. Perhaps he could have both, wonders Michael Shear at the New York Times: He'd be able to take the Facebook job and might still be able to lay the groundwork for the Obama campaign as an "off-duty pursuit."
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Perhaps, but this might be a good time for Gibbs to take a leap into the private sector. As Business Insider notes, he's never worked in communications outside of politics, and getting a top job at $60 billion dollar valued tech giant might be too sweet of an offer to pass up.
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