Instagram founders snubbed Mark Zuckerberg in first goodbye letter

Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom and
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
AP/Reuters

• Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger
  announced they were quitting Facebook on Monday, but snubbed
  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in their goodbye letter.
• The pair did eventually mention Zuckerberg in an
  Instagram post, along with a few other Facebook
  executives.
• This is not the first time a founder has snubbed
  Zuckerberg in announcing their departure — WhatsApp’s Jan Koum
  also made no mention of the Facebook CEO when he left in
  April.

Instagram’s cofounders
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced they were leaving
Facebook on Monday night amid reports of tension with
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Systrom and Zuckerberg have enjoyed a good relationship since
Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, but the
Instagram CEO failed to mention his boss in his farewell message.

Systrom released a statement, which carried
more than a few red flags, but most notable was the complete
absence of Zuckerberg’s name. Here is the statement in full:

“Mike and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram
and six years with the Facebook team. We’ve grown from 13 people
to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while
building products used and loved by a community of over one
billion. We’re now ready for our next chapter.

We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity
and creativity again. Building new things requires that we step
back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the
world needs; that’s what we plan to do.

We remain excited for the future of Instagram and Facebook in the
coming years as we transition from leaders to two users in a
billion. We look forward to watching what these innovative and
extraordinary companies do next.”

It was only a few hours later that Systrom got round to
mentioning Zuckerberg — alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg,
CTO Mike Schroepfer, and Chief Product Officer Chris Cox — in an
Instagram message.

While largely identical, the Instagram post featured a few extra
lines:

“We’ve loved learning to scale a company and nurture an enormous
global community. And we couldn’t have done it without our
amazing Instagram team, and the support of @zuck,
@sherylsandberg, @schrep, and @chriscox at Facebook — we’ve
learned so much from all of you.”

Krieger posted a virtually identical message on his Instagram as
well.

The initial snub comes amid reports that there have been clashes
over Instagram’s autonomy in recent months, with sources pointing
out that Facebook is gripping its $1 billion acquisition tighter.

It’s not the first time Zuckerberg has been omitted from a
goodbye message. WhatsApp
founder Jan Koum also omitted Zuckerberg’s name when he
announced he was quitting in April, which was reportedly
prompted by his discontent with Facebook increasingly encroaching
on users’ privacy.