NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have resigned from their posts and plan to soon leave the company, adding to the downward trend of parent company Facebook.
Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive, and Krieger, chief technical officer, notified the company’s leadership and Facebook about their decision to leave on Monday, sources told the New York Times. No reason for the exit was given but sources said they had been planning to take some time off after stepping down. The two met in 2010, transforming a software project into what became a platform that now has more than 1 billion users.
“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again,” Systrom said in a statement. “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.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg praised the founders in a statement, wishing them “all the best and I’m looking forward to seeing what they build next.”
Wow. @mikeyk and @kevin leaving Instagram is a real moment. I figured they would leave at some point, but what an impact they’ve had on all of us. Maybe my favorite mobile native app of all time. 👏
— John Lilly (@johnolilly) September 25, 2018
The announcement follows that of Jan Koum, founder of WhatsApp, who said in April that he was leaving the company that was acquired by Facebook in 2014. Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock.
