Facebook exec Dustin Moskowitz quits

Update: Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed Moskovitz's departure from the company, saying "Dustin has always had Facebook's best interests at heart and will always be someone I turn to for advice."

Dustin Moskowitz, one of Mark Zuckerberg's co-founders at Facebook and one of the young CEO's longtime confidants, has left the company according to Valleywag. He's leaving to found an undisclosed new company with Justin Rosenstein, another departing Facebook engineer, the blog said.

Moskowitz, who served as a head engineer at the social network, was one of Facebook's earliest employees--so early, in fact, that he was named along with Zuckerberg and several other then-Harvard students in the ConnectU vs. Facebook lawsuit that was finally settled this year. Moskowitz's departure was reportedly announced in an e-mail to the company from Zuckerberg.

In recent years, Moskowitz's role at the company was primarily behind-the-scenes, but he was responsible for some public product debuts like the Facebook for BlackBerry application.

At the same time, Facebook's executive ranks began more and more to resemble those of a Silicon Valley power player rather than a geeky college start-up. The social network hired former Google executives Sheryl Sandberg and Elliot Schrage as chief operating officer and vice president of communications and public affairs, respectively, and just last week announced the hire of veteran D.C. insider Ted Ullyot as general counsel.

Facebook representatives were not immediately available to confirm Moskowitz's departure.