Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook-owner Meta in 2008 |
The announcement initially sent the social
media firm's shares down 4 percent, but the stock was nearly flat in after
hours trade.
"When I took this job in 2008, I hoped
I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me
to write the next chapter of my life," she wrote.
Chief Growth Officer Javier Olivan will
take over as chief operating officer, Zuckerberg said in a separate Facebook
post, although he added that he did not plan to replace Sandberg's role
directly within the company's existing structure.
"I think Meta has reached the point
where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely
integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions
organized separately from our products," he said.
Olivan has worked at Meta for more than 14
years and has led teams handling Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Sandberg's departure marks an end of an era
for Meta, which is shifting focus toward hardware products and the
"metaverse" after years of scandals over privacy abuses and the
spread of conspiratorial content on its platforms, as well as plateauing user
growth on its flagship app Facebook.
The second-in-command to founder
Zuckerberg, who was 23 years old when he hired her, Sandberg is one of the most
visible executives at the company and the lead architect of its
often-criticized ads-based business model.
Bringing management experience and
knowledge of the then-nascent digital ads industry, she transformed Facebook
from a buzzy startup into a revenue behemoth, while also positioning herself as
the face of feminism in corporate America
At the time, Facebook was making $272
million in revenue, for a net loss of $56 million, according to regulatory
filings. By 2011, a year before the company's initial public offering, its
revenue had shot to $3.7 billion on $1 billion in profits.
Meta ended 2021 with revenue of $118
billion and earnings of $39.4 billion.
Sandberg said in her post that she will
continue to serve on Meta's board after leaving the company in the fall.
When asked about her next steps, she told
Reuters she was focusing on philanthropy at a "critical moment for
women."
"We've hired so many great leaders. I
feel really good about that. The next leadership team is in place to take the
company forward," she said, mentioning Chief Business Officer Marne Levine
and President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg by name.
Staunch defender
Sandberg has been a staunch defender of
Facebook over the course of its many controversies, consistently arguing that
executives were learning from their mistakes and honing the company's tools to
better police against harmful content.
She told Reuters last year that she and
Zuckerberg had a responsibility to fix systems that had failed, while rejecting
reports that she was losing power at the company.
"People love headlines about corporate
drama, and I think it's fair to say they particularly love headlines about
sidelining women," she said in the January 2021 interview.
Sandberg's tenure covered both Facebook's
original settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission in 2011 for privacy
violations and a subsequent blockbuster $5 billion settlement for violations of
the earlier deal.
She and Zuckerberg were among those that
then-Commissioner Rohit Chopra said should have faced more investigation for
their roles in the company's behavior.
Under her leadership, the company was
buffeted by revelations in 2018 that UK consultancy Cambridge Analytica had
improperly acquired data on millions of its US users to target election
advertising.
The same year, UN human rights
investigators said the use of Facebook had played a key role in spreading hate
speech that fueled violence against the Rohingya community in Myanmar.
She courted additional criticism when she
told Reuters early last year she believed events around the January 6 attack on
the US Capitol were largely organized on other platforms, although researchers
had identified similar activity on Facebook as well.
Whistleblower Frances Haugen late last year
accused the social media giant of repeatedly prioritizing profit over clamping
down on hate speech and misinformation, and said her lawyers had filed at least
eight complaints with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Prior to joining Facebook, Sandberg was
vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google and chief of staff
for the United States Treasury Department under former President Bill Clinton.
A Harvard University graduate, Sandberg is
the author of several books, including the 2013 feminist manifesto "Lean
In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead." © Reuters
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