WhatsApp Co-Founder Jan Koum Leaving After Clashing With Facebook
Image by wikipedia
(JTA) — WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum will leave the company over conflicts with Facebook, which bought the messaging service four years ago.
Koum, a Jewish billionaire originally from Ukraine, reportedly also will leave Facebook’s board of directors, according to The Washington Post, which cited people familiar with internal discussions. His date of departure has not been set.
Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 million in 2014.
It is believed that Koum is leaving due to disagreement with Facebook over the privacy of user data and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, though Facebook has not confirmed this.
Koum, 42, who is worth more than $9 billion, moved to California with his grandmother and mother at the age of 16.
In a Facebook post Monday, Koum said “it is time for me to move on.”
He also wrote: “I’m taking some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology, such as collecting rare air-cooled Porsches, working on my cars and playing ultimate frisbee. And I’ll still be cheering WhatsApp on – just from the outside.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, responded in a comment: “I will miss working so closely with you. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done to help connect the world, and for everything you’ve taught me, including about encryption and its ability to take power from centralized systems and put it back in people’s hands. Those values will always be at the heart of WhatsApp.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
