• The New York Times, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 10:11 AM

Facebook has hired Alexandre Hohagen, the top Google executive in Latin America, to be its vice president of sales in the region. Hohagen helped Google establish its Latin American offices six years ago and later served as general manager of Google Brazil, followed by vice president of Google Latin America. On the news, The New York Times notes: "The fight for talent between Google and Facebook -- or more precisely, the flow of Google employees to Facebook -- is not just a Silicon Valley affair."

Facebook said the appointment underscored its commitment to the region, and said it planned to build a local advertising team there. "Brazil has plenty of significance in the battle between Google and Facebook," according to the newspaper. Indeed, "it is one of the few large markets where Google's social network, Orkut, is still larger than Facebook's." As of December, Facebook had 12.4 million users in Brazil, according to comScore -- compared to Orkut's 32.7 million users.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »