Jan Koum’s exit from Facebook could prove costly. A speedy departure may prevent him from collecting as much as US$1bn in stock awards (R12.6bn at the time of writing).
The CEO of messaging unit WhatsApp confirmed in a Facebook post Monday afternoon that he was leaving the company. The announcement comes before the final three vesting dates of restricted stock unit awards tied to Facebook’s $22bn purchase of WhatsApp in 2014.
Koum, 42, got about 24.9m restricted shares as part of the deal. The stock vests in increments until late 2018, with 1.9m shares due to vest in mid-May and mid-August, plus a final tranche of 2.1m set to be issued in November.
The awards are contingent on him still being employed through those dates. He would forfeit 5.8m shares, worth $997.5m as of Monday’s close, if he left before 15 May, unless his exit is categorised as an involuntary termination or a good-reason resignation, regulatory filings show.
The precise circumstances of his departure aren’t yet clear. Facebook declined to comment on Koum’s departure date.
The Washington Post reported earlier that Koum is exiting the company after clashing with Facebook over strategy, and that he also plans to leave the board. The other co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, also left recently — and last month posted the #DeleteFacebook hashtag during the social network’s scandal over user privacy.
Koum’s decision may be made easier thanks to the $10.4bn fortune he’s already accrued, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’s already sold $8bn worth of Facebook stock since 2015.
“It is time for me to move on,” Koum said in the post. “I’m taking some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology, such as collecting rare air-cooled Porsches, working on my cars and playing ultimate Frisbee.” — Reported by Tom Metcalf and Anders Melin, with assistance from Sarah Frier, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP
