Meta Platforms, aka Facebook (FB), has just lost one of its heads.
Sheryl Sandberg, 52, chief operating officer (COO) and right-hand woman of Mark Zuckerberg, is stepping down, the group announced in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ms. Sandberg had joined Facebook in October 2008. She is credited with transforming the platform into an online advertising giant. Sandberg is indeed seen as the person who managed to help the firm of Menlo Park in California to monetize its audience and make money.
She is seen as a Silicon Valley heavyweight and one of the most powerful women in the business world after having formed, with Zuckerberg, one of the most prominent duos in the tech world.
"On May 28, 2022, Sheryl Sandberg informed Meta Platforms of her decision to resign from her position as chief operating officer of the company after a transition period," the company said in the SEC filing.
Following her resignation, Ms. Sandberg will continue to serve as a member of the board, which will appoint Javier Olivan as COO.
'I Don't Plan to Replace Sheryl'
The move will be effective upon the conclusion of the transition period, Facebook said, without providing a specific time limit.
Olivan has been with Facebook since October 2007. Since January, he was recently the chief growth officer and Vice President, Cross-Meta Products and Infrastructure.
“Over the next few months, Mark and I will transition my direct reports,” Sandberg said in a Facebook post discussing stepping down.
This departure is a big blow for Zuckerberg because it comes at a time when the social media giant is trying to convince the world that his turn to the metaverse is necessary. Its stock fell 42% this year through May. At last check it was trading around $192.
“Looking forward, I don’t plan to replace Sheryl’s role in our existing structure. I’m not sure that would be possible since she’s a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.
“But even if it were possible, 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.
Facebook will take advantage of this departure to carry out a large-scale reorganization. The firm had however already promoted in February Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister, as president for global affairs.
Clegg, who joined Facebook in October 2018 as vice president of global affairs and communications, became the face of the company as Zuckerberg decided to focus on products and new technologies, in particular the metaverse.
Sandberg is stepping down the day after the group announced that it would permanently drop its name to become Meta Platforms for both the general public and the markets. From June 9, the 'FB' ticker symbol will no longer exist on the Nasdaq. It will be replaced by 'META'. The group hopes to put behind it the controversies that have fueled its daily life since 2016.
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These include the case of the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which collected data from millions of Facebook profiles and used the information to help the presidential campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Donald Trump, who went on to win the presidency in 2016.
The company apologized for its role in the data harvesting and Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress.
Three years later, Facebook reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission whereby the company would pay a $5 billion penalty over privacy violations.
Arguably the biggest blow to the company came last year from Frances Haugen, a former product manager, who revealed herself as the whistleblower behind a series of documents leaked to The Wall Street Journal.
On a personal level, Sandberg has also recently seen her role as a feminist icon be stained by revelations that have caused outcry from women's rights organizations.
A WSJ story published April 21 alleged that Sandberg aided Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick twice in pressuring Daily Mail not to publish a story that reported on a temporary restraining order filed against Kotick by an ex-girlfriend.
Sandberg and Kotick previously dated for three years from 2016 to 2019.
She has long built a brand focused on women's empowerment at the corporate level.
Her 2013 book, "Lean In," about how women should take advantage of difficult times in their life to "lean in" to their careers had sold almost five million copies by 2019.
The book also faced immediate and scathing criticism for its ham-handed approach to race, class and what feminism means if you aren't a wealthy white woman who can afford domestic help and full-time childcare.
“I tell women, that whole ‘you can have it all’ — nope, not at the same time; that’s a lie,” Michelle Obama said of the book on Dec. 1, 2018. “It’s not always enough to lean in, because that s--- doesn’t work all the time.”
Sandberg has since walked back some of "Lean In"'s premise, particularly after the death of her husband left her without a second full-time parent to help.
But she has continued to cultivate an image separate from being Facebook's mouthpiece during its increasingly fraught public stumbles.
Prior to Facebook, Sandberg worked in the Clinton administration and joined Google in 2001. She helped grow its advertising business.
