At Meta, formerly known as Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg is giving up her position as Chief Operating Officer. As the No. 2 to Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Sandberg joined Facebook in early 2008. She assisted in transforming the company into one of the most powerful in the internet sector, with a market cap that at one time exceeded $1 trillion.
This fall, the chief growth officer of the company, Javier Olivan, will become COO. Sandberg will stay on the board of directors for Meta after informing Zuckerberg of her choice this past weekend.
In a lengthy Facebook post about retiring, Sandberg stated, “Mark and I will transition my direct reports over the coming few months.” According to Zuckerberg, Meta is preparing an internal restructuring to go along with the transition.
I don’t have any immediate plans to take over Sheryl’s position in our current structure. She is a rockstar who defined the COO role in her own special way, so I’m not sure that would be feasible, Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.
I believe Meta has reached a stage where it makes sense for our product and business divisions to be more closely integrated rather than having all the business and operational functions organized separately from our products, even if it were technically possible.
Due to its enormous reach, inability to prevent the transmission of dangerous information, and acquisitions of former competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp, Meta has come under scrutiny in recent years. Sandberg has mostly avoided the spotlight, while Zuckerberg and other executives have been required to testify before Congress on numerous occasions during the last three years.
The Federal Trade Commission is presently suing the corporation for antitrust violations, and the Securities and Exchange Commission may also be investigating the company as a result of a whistleblower complaint about its attempts to prevent hate on its platform.
Sandberg claimed in an interview with Julia Boorstin of CNBC that her choice to resign will allow her to concentrate more on her charitable work. According to her, the move is unrelated to the company’s regulatory burden or the present slowdown in advertising.
