WhatsApp Co-Founder Jan Koum Is Leaving Facebook

The social network acquired the messaging app for $19 billion in 2014

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum announced Monday that he is leaving the messaging application and parent company Facebook.

He revealed his departure in a Facebook post, saying that he would take some time off before contemplating his next move. Koum and Brian Acton co-founded WhatsApp in January 2009, and Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of the messaging app officially closed in October 2014.

Koum is also a member of Facebook’s board of directors, and he informed Facebook that he will not stand for re-election at the company’s 2018 annual meeting.

Acton left Facebook and WhatsApp last September to start a nonprofit, and he and computer security researcher Matthew Rosenfeld, also known as Moxie Marlinspike, started the Signal Foundation in February to develop open-source privacy technology.

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