Silicon Valley's Dave Goldberg dies

SAN FRANCISCO (Web Desk) - The Silicon Valley entrepreneur and SurveyMonkey Chief Executive Dave Goldberg has died suddenly at the age of 47, his family says.

Husband of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Goldberg was a former Yahoo executive before joining Surveymonkey in 2009.

 

He expanded the online survey company leading to a valuation of $2bn (£1.3bn), the Wall Street Journal says.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described him as "an amazing person".

News of Goldberg's death was posted on Facebook by his brother, Robert.

"It's with incredible shock and sadness that I'm letting our friends and family know that my amazing brother, Dave Goldberg, beloved husband of Sheryl Sandberg, father of two wonderful children, and son of Paula Goldberg, passed away suddenly last night," he wrote.

Under Dave Goldberg, SurveyMonkey grew from a handful of employees to more than 450 and acquired 25 million customers.

His fortunes was closely linked to those of Silicon Valley - a media company founded by him, Launch Media, was taken over by Yahoo in 2001, just after the "dotcom bubble" burst.

In a profile by Business Insider, Goldberg describes how he and a friend started Launch Media, which delivered music online.

"I decided I had to start something. It was more the motivation to try running my own thing than because I had some brilliant idea."