Sheryl Sandberg was adult in room of Zuckerberg production at Facebook | NEWSRUX

When Fb held its Nasdaq debut 10 years in the past, the prospectus named six government officers.

Just one nonetheless stays: Mark Zuckerberg.

Sheryl Sandberg introduced her departure from the corporate, now named Meta, on Wednesday, abandoning an advanced 14-year legacy on the social media big, a job that turned her right into a billionaire and one of the highly effective girls within the enterprise world.

In 2012, she was seen as so essential to Fb’s credibility with prospects and traders that the corporate’s IPO submitting named her as one in every of two key individuals.

“We presently rely upon the continued companies and efficiency of our key personnel, together with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Ok. Sandberg,” Fb wrote within the threat elements part of its prospectus.

The language caught, and is repeated all through the corporate’s newest annual submitting. Nevertheless it’s turn out to be more and more divorced from actuality.

In the previous couple of years, Sandberg’s star has pale, as unflattering studies emerged of her mishandling of the Russian disinformation story following the 2016 presidential election. In line with a 2018 report within the Wall Road Journal, Zuckerberg blamed Sandberg for the fallout over the scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica, the info analytics agency that improperly used Fb profiles for political analysis.

As a champion of girls in tech, Sandberg additionally caught flack final 12 months after former worker Frances Haugen revealed inner paperwork displaying the corporate knew its merchandise might hurt the psychological well being of teenage ladies — and refused to make adjustments.

Investor Whitney Tilson printed a letter he wrote to Sandberg in October, after Haugen appeared on “60 Minutes.”

“Horrified does not even start to explain my emotions,” Tilson wrote. “In case you and Mark assume that you could run the previous playbook that is labored each time up to now – apologize and take just a few token steps, however probably not change something – and that this can simply blow over, you might be sorely mistaken.”

Sandberg, 52, continued to look on earnings calls to speak in regards to the advert enterprise and points like regulation. There, too, she’s discovered herself in a tough spot. Removed from its days as a Silicon Valley progress engine, Fb lately reported its first-ever quarter of progress underneath 10%, and stated that income within the second quarter might decline from a 12 months earlier.

“The corporate must discover a new method ahead, and maybe this was the very best time for Sandberg to depart,” Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at analysis agency Insider Intelligence, wrote in an emailed assertion.

Zuckerberg has tried to vary the dialog, specializing in the metaverse and a way forward for digital leaning, play and work. In his new world, Sandberg was an outsider.

In the course of the 77-minute presentation in October that Zuckerberg used to announce the identify change and to point out off what Meta is attempting to construct, the corporate’s No. 2 was nowhere to be discovered.

Nonetheless, Zuckerberg praised Sandberg on Wednesday, declaring it the “finish of an period.” Whereas Javier Olivan, Meta’s chief progress officer, will assume the title of chief working officer later this 12 months, Zuckerberg wrote in a Fb put up that he does not plan to exchange Sheryl’s position and, “I am unsure that may be potential since she’s a famous person who outlined the COO position in her personal distinctive method.”

Fourteen years older than Zuckerberg, Sandberg dropped at Fb a hefty resume from her years at Google and her work in Washington as a part of former President Invoice Clinton’s Treasury Division. Zuckerberg, against this, was a university dropout who’d by no means had an actual job.

Sandberg had an plain impression on constructing Fb’s promoting enterprise and its inner operations, together with advertising and marketing and human assets. However the imaginative and prescient of the corporate has all the time been crafted by one particular person and one particular person solely. For Zuckerberg, realizing that imaginative and prescient was a job for engineers.

“Now we have a saying: ‘Transfer quick and break issues,'” Zuckerberg famously wrote in his letter to potential shareholders within the IPO submitting. “The concept is that in the event you by no means break something, you are in all probability not shifting quick sufficient.”

For Zuckerberg, shifting quick meant serving as Fb’s singular head of enterprise growth for a few of its most necessary selections. He provided to purchase Instagram shortly earlier than the IPO with out enter from the board, and he reportedly orchestrated the $19 billion buy of WhatsApp after seeing knowledge that confirmed the messaging app was an existential risk to his enterprise.

Sandberg joined Fb’s board in 2008, and indicated on Wednesday that she’s going to proceed to function a director. However Zuckerberg has everlasting management over voting rights for the corporate’s inventory, because of his super-voting shares. Meaning he will get to decide on the board members who will adhere to his imaginative and prescient.

That is why Zuckerberg will get to determine when he needs to vary the identify of the corporate to Meta and spend $10 billion this 12 months constructing a metaverse which will or might not flip into an actual enterprise by the tip of the last decade.

Sandberg advised CNBC that she’s planning to concentrate on philanthropy, particularly serving to girls, including that she’s “very optimistic about the way forward for the corporate.”

However traders have been bailing, with the inventory shedding half its worth since peaking in September. It dropped one other 2.6% in prolonged buying and selling after Sandberg introduced her departure.

No matter occurs now, Zuckerberg has no one guilty however himself.

— CNBC’s Julia Boorstin contributed to this report.

WATCH: Sandberg says determination to depart about specializing in philanthropy