NYT: Facebook "Likes" Gibbs

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe New York Times reports today that Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network goliath Facebook hopes to land former Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for a senior slot to manage the company's communications.

Gibbs, 40, left the Obama Administration in February 2011, after serving two years as press secretary. Facebook has yet to make a formal offer to Gibbs, who was communications director during Barack Obama's senate and presidential campaigns.

Although his name has surfaced as a candidate to chair the Democratic National Committee, Gibbs would cash in were he to join Facebook, where he would likely receive a hefty salary and shares in the company ahead of Facebook's anticipated Initial Public Offering in 2012. Before he was purportedly poked by Facebook, Gibbs was expected to play a prominent role in President Obama's re-election campaign.

Although many members of the White House press corps would just as soon "de-friend" Gibbs, that he knows his way around the Washington, D.C. corridors of power would be an asset to Facebook, which has bolstered its lobbying efforts before the FTC and Defense Intelligence Agency, the Times reports.