Fight Over Facebook's Dealings With Founders Spills Into the Public
A Facebook executive is wading into the debate over how the social network handles the companies it has acquired.
(Bloomberg) -- A Facebook Inc. executive is wading into the debate over how the social network handles the companies it has acquired -- taking aim at WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton as “low class.”
Acton, who left Facebook almost a year ago, described his tenure at the company in an interview with Forbes published Wednesday, citing numerous points of conflict with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.
Now, Facebook executive David Marcus is offering what he calls “the other side of the story.” His post defends Facebook’s relationship with founders as empowering and offering unprecedented autonomy. Marcus says no one at Facebook asked him to write the post, adding “attacking the people and company that made you a billionaire” is “a whole new standard of low-class.”
The announced departures earlier this week of Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger puts into question whether Facebook can offer long-term autonomy when it acquires companies, which eventually are expected to deliver on high user and revenue growth targets.
To contact the reporter on this story: Maggie Otte in San Francisco at motte1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Molly Schuetz
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