23 ms·

Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

544 points by coloneltcb 4y ago

graycat 4y ago
What are the secrets to how they made 3 billion people so happy to be users of Facebook (Meta)? Or, how the heck, 14 years ago, or 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago, could anyone have predicted the 3 billion people? Astounding. Any ideas how to understand that?
- stareatgoats 4y ago
  The time for an online people-directory was ripe. There can only be one such (for normal people), and Facebook made some fortuitous strategic decisions early on (minimize ads, real name policy, target university students, and more). Once Facebook achieved critical mass then they just had to avoid silly mistakes in order to succeed.
  - graycat 4y ago
    Why early on was Facebook so much more promising than MySpace?
    - jbullock35 4y ago
      And what made it more promising than Friendster?
    - randomsearch 4y ago
      The Like button
formerkrogemp 4y ago
I was going to write a long post. But, good riddance.
bmitc 4y ago
Must be nice to retire a billionaire, making money off of other people's data, and getting out when the writing's on the wall.
rr808 4y ago
Whatever you think of FB politics (which I'm not sure how much influence she has), ops wise she has done an outstanding job at FB to make it run.
- my69thaccount 4y ago
  What are you talking about? She is the face of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
  - marcinzm 4y ago
    And Facebook/Meta has come out of all that with even more revenue than before. I call that a business success even if not an ethical success.
    - piva00 4y ago
      So an outstanding job just requires business to flourish, doesn't matter the means? I really don't agree with that.
      - bradlys 4y ago
        In a capitalistic system - yes. She’s won and there’s fuckall you can do about it. If you wanna play by a different set of rules - gotta change the entire landscape. No one is going to do that.
        piva00 4y ago
        It's just sad that people spout this as an absolute unchangeable truth. She's won financially, completely lost morally and ethically. As a human she's a failure, as a capitalist she's a winner. Yes, it is the system, does not mean I will call that an outstanding job because we focus on one metric: profit/making money. It's pretty stupid to reduce existence to these terms because of an economical system.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
lbhdc 4y ago
It seems like the article link requires a FB account. Can anyone paste the contents or share a link that doesn't require a facebook account?
- dhd415 4y ago
  I think it depends on how many FB posts you've viewed already. It didn't require a login for me until I refreshed twice.
- paxys 4y ago
  It does not require a FB account. You can see it from an incognito window just fine.
  - hollerith 4y ago
    I tried that just now, and got a "you must log in" page.
    - bornfreddy 4y ago
      Interesting, it works for me... Maybe try in a different browser to avoid supercookies / fingerprinting?
  - lbhdc 4y ago
    I tried that, and got a log in page. I also tried to get archive.is to scrape it, and it also got a log in page.
  - celsoazevedo 4y ago
    It redirects me to the login page, even with incognito. Even the Wayback Machine is getting redirected: https://i.imgur.com/84UDbjG.png https://i.imgur.com/84UDbjG.png Facebook and Instagram often do this when they don't like your IP (a problem with CG-NAT, VPN, etc).
- rockemsockem 4y ago
  It doesn't. I didn't login to anything.
bozhark 4y ago
You have to login to read this? Strange.
- WaxProlix 4y ago
  I'm not logged in and read it just fine.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- my69thaccount 4y ago
  I can view it without a login. Here's a plaintext copy for people who have problems. https://pastebin.com/NjhMJThB https://pastebin.com/NjhMJThB
- sp332 4y ago
  The post privacy is set to "global", and I did not have to log in to read it. Try a private tab?
- dkarl 4y ago
  I agree, pretty bizarre for a public announcement.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
my69thaccount 4y ago
- efrank02 4y ago
  She’s one of the most powerful women in the world. Not self important just important.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- KaiserPro 4y ago
  thats the Sandberg™ brand.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  1500 words isn't that many words. Most people when they send their farewell company email is like 500 words. She'd been at the company (at the top) for >10 years. What do you expect?
  - my69thaccount 4y ago
    Since you read it all, can you tell me if there is anything in it aside from meaningless corporate platitudes? Is the expectation that more senior=more platitudes since nobody reads them and just looks at how long they are anyway?
- qgin 4y ago
  I mean, many people would consider her leaving to be an important event. For all intents and purposes, she ran one of the largest internet platforms for 14 years.
sealthedeal 4y ago
Today, I am sharing the news that after 14 years, I will be leaving Meta. When I first met Mark, I was not really looking for a new job – and I could have never predicted how meeting him would change my life. We were at a holiday party at Daniel L Rosensweig's house. I was introduced to Mark as I walked in the door, and we started talking about his vision for Facebook. I had tried The Facebook, as it was first called, but still thought the internet was a largely anonymous place to search for funny pictures. Mark’s belief that people would put their real selves online to connect with other people was so mesmerizing that we stood by that door and talked for the rest of the night. I told Dan later that I got a new life at that party but never got a single drink, so he owed me one. Many months later, after countless – and I mean countless – dinners and conversations with Mark, he offered me this job. It was chaotic at first. I would schedule a meeting with an engineer for nine o’clock only to find that they would not show up. They assumed I meant nine p.m., because who would come to work at nine a.m.? We had some ads, but they were not performing well, and most advertisers I met wanted to take over our homepage like The Incredible Hulk movie had on MySpace. One was so angry when I said no to her homepage idea that she slammed her fist on the table, walked out of the room, and never returned. That first summer, Mark realized that he had never had a chance to travel, so he went away for a month, leaving me and Matt Cohler in charge without a ton of direction and almost no ability to contact him. It seemed crazy – but it was a display of trust I have never forgotten. When I was considering joining Facebook, my late husband, Dave, counseled me not to jump in and immediately try to resolve every substantive issue with Mark, as we would face so many over time. Instead, I should set up the right process with him. So, on the way in, I asked Mark for three things – that we would sit next to each other, that he would meet with me one-on-one every week, and that in those meetings he would give me honest feedback when he thought I messed something up. Mark said yes to all three but added that the feedback would have to be mutual. To this day, he has kept those promises. We still sit together (OK, not through COVID), meet one-on-one every week, and the feedback is immediate and real. Sitting by Mark’s side for these 14 years has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. Mark is a true visionary and a caring leader. He sometimes says that we grew up together, and we have. He was just 23 and I was already 38 when we met, but together we have been through the massive ups and downs of running this company, as well as his marriage to the magnificent Priscilla, the sorrow of their miscarriages and the joy of their childbirths, the sudden loss of Dave, my engagement to Tom, and so much more. In the critical moments of my life, in the highest highs and in the depths of true lows, I have never had to turn to Mark, because he was already there. When I joined Facebook, I had a two-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter. I did not know if this was the right time for a new and demanding role. The messages were everywhere that women – and I – could not be both a leader and a good mother, but I wanted to give it a try. Once I started, I realized that to see my children before they went to sleep, I had to leave the office at 5:30 p.m., which was when work was just getting going for many of my new colleagues. In my previous role at Google, there were enough people and buildings that leaving early wasn’t noticed, but Facebook was a small startup and there was nowhere to hide. More out of necessity than bravery, I found my nerve and walked out early anyway. Then, supported by Mark, I found my voice to admit this publicly and then talk about the challenges women face in the workplace. My hope was to make this a bit easier for others and help more women believe they can and should lead. I am beyond grateful to the thousands of brilliant, dedicated people at Meta with whom I have had the privilege of working over the last 14 years. Every day someone does something that stops me in my tracks and reminds me how lucky I am to be surrounded by such remarkable colleagues. This team is filled with exceptionally talented people who have poured their hearts and minds into building products that have had a profound impact on the world. It's because of this team – past and present – that more than three billion people use our products to keep in touch and share their experiences. More than 200 million businesses use them to create virtual storefronts, communicate with customers, and grow. Billions of dollars have been raised for causes people believe in. Behind each of these statistics is a story. Friends who would have lost touch but didn't. Families that stayed in contact despite being separated by oceans. Communities that have rallied together. Entrepreneurial people – especially women and others who have faced obstacles and discrimination – who have turned their ideas into successful businesses. Last week, a friend saw a post about a mutual friend of ours having a baby and told me that she remembers how before Instagram, she would have missed this moment. When the women in Lean In’s global Circles community couldn’t meet in person, they used Facebook to encourage each other and share advice for navigating work and life during the pandemic. At an International Women’s Day lunch, a woman told me that her Facebook birthday fundraiser generated enough money to provide shelter for two women experiencing domestic abuse. Just last month, I heard about how in India, the Self Employed Women’s Association connects over WhatsApp to organize and increase their collective bargaining power. I’ve loved traveling the world (physically and virtually) to meet small business owners and hear their stories – like Zuzanna Sielicka Kalczyńska in Poland, who started a business with her sister selling cuddly stuffed animals that make white noise to sooth crying babies. They began with a single Facebook post in 2014 and have gone on to sell in more than 20 countries and build a workforce mostly made up of moms like them. The debate around social media has changed beyond recognition since those early days. To say it hasn’t always been easy is an understatement. But it should be hard. The products we make have a huge impact, so we have the responsibility to build them in a way that protects privacy and keeps people safe. Just as I believe wholeheartedly in our mission, our industry, and the overwhelmingly positive power of connecting people, I and the dedicated people of Meta have felt our responsibilities deeply. I know that the extraordinary team at Meta will continue to work tirelessly to rise to these challenges and keep making our company and our community better. I also know that our platforms will continue to be an engine of growth for the businesses around the world that rely on us. When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life. I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women. And as Tom and I get married this summer, parenting our expanded family of five children. Over the next few months, Mark and I will transition my direct reports and I will leave the company this fall. I still believe as strongly as ever in our mission, and I am honored that I will continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors. I am so immensely proud of everything this team has achieved. The businesses we’ve helped and the business we've built. The culture we've nurtured together. And I'm especially proud that this is a company where many, many exceptional women and people from diverse backgrounds have risen through our ranks and become leaders – both in our company and in leadership roles elsewhere. Thank you to the colleagues who inspire me every day with their commitment to our mission, to our partners around the world who have enabled us to build a business that serves their businesses, and especially to Mark for giving me this opportunity and being one of the best friends anyone could ever have.
cedricd 4y ago
That's pretty surprising. I know that there has been tons of controversy swirling around the company the past few years, but things have seemed relatively quiet lately, other than their recent bad revenue growth. Do people here think this is a shakeup at the company or that she legitimately wanted to do something else?
- tempsy 4y ago
  Is it really? I don’t think it is. Pre-Trump era she was more the public face of Facebook than even Zuck. Then when the Cambridge Analytica scandal basically did a 180 on the entire reputation of the company she effectively disappeared from the public eye.
  - cedricd 4y ago
    Yeah. I suppose I mean that she's been disappeared for the public eye for a while, so why leave now? My guess isn't that maybe she's lost too much influence and just doesn't find the job interesting anymore.
    - tempsy 4y ago
      I mean hard to leave a job where you’re getting paid hundreds of millions.
      - bornfreddy 4y ago
        Does that still matter the second year and after that? In other words, is there a difference between having 100m and 200m? I would assume you can afford pretty much the same things with both of the amounts... (no first-hand experience)
        chris11 4y ago
        You don't get paid that much money without being incredibly ambitious. Sure you got all the money you need, but what comes next? Sheryl Sandberg has literally changed the world. I'd guess choosing to redefine her life took a lot of thought.
minimaxir 4y ago
It's possible this announcement was intentionally timed against the media-consuming Depp/Heard trial verdict announcement in an attempt to bury the news. Meta stock went down a few points immediately after the announcement.
- rockinghigh 4y ago
  These moves are prepared months in advance. I'm not sure why you would link an unrelated trial about a movie star to the announcement. Sheryl is a billionaire, she probably wants to take time off.
  - minimaxir 4y ago
    Prepared months in advance, but there's some flexibility on the exact timing of the announcement. EDIT: Apparently this was not actually prepared months in advance. > I’m told that Sheryl Sandberg notified Mark Zuckerberg that she would step down over the weekend https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1532100449095933952 https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1532100449095933952
  - guerrilla 4y ago
    > I'm not sure why you would link an unrelated trial about a movie star to the announcement. They told you why, to bury the news, which they all have an incentive to do. If it wasn't the trial verdict (which is dominating the news), they could have waited until something else to displace it. News outlets have finite space and time and the public has a finite attention span, not too hard to take advantage of that.
- iLoveOncall 4y ago
  Yeah, because people that invest heavily in the stock market are the same people that read about celebrities in Closer.
  - coastflow 4y ago
    The Washington Post is covering the trial heavily, as the defamation suit resulted as a response to an opinion-editorial that Heard wrote in The Washington Post (the trial is in Virginia because that is where the servers and printers of the WaPost are located).
waynesonfire 4y ago
She signed up for fb not meta
- bborud 4y ago
  My thoughts on Meta and the whole Zuckerverse thing is still "yeah, I think I'll sit this one out". I really don't want one of those Facehuggers strapped to my face.
SilverBirch 4y ago
I think it's really deserving of praise that Sheryl managed to join Facebook in 2008, joining right as it was clear Facebook would become a behemoth. She then spent 14 years helping to steer a young Mark Zuckerberg through some of the most immoral, damaging and discrediting decisions a company can make. Now, at the absolutely peak of Facebook, where it's losing users, it's reputation is so bad it literally had to change it's name and "pivot", now she steps aside. "To the victims of genocides organised on my platform, to the little girls who self-harmed looking at photos on our platform, to the businesses we destroyed through our arbitrary and capricious policy changes, my job is done here, it's been an honor"
- miketery 4y ago
  She also personally approved an anti-semetic smear campaign against Soros, because his trust gave money to some non-profit that were critical of facebook.
- randomsearch 4y ago
  I hope that you hold Zuckerberg in even more contempt. Do you?
  - my69thaccount 4y ago
    Yes? Duh?
atourgates 4y ago
"Sitting by Mark’s side for these 14 years has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. [...] In the critical moments of my life, in the highest highs and in the depths of true lows, I have never had to turn to Mark, because he was already there." If this is an accurate reflection of her experience, I don't expect it's a side of Mark Zuckerberg most of us imagine exists.
- ralph84 4y ago
  Or it's a nice way of saying he's a micromanager.
  - Trasmatta 4y ago
    For real, it almost read like a thinly veiled burn on Mark to me. Like, "give me some space Mark, you don't need to be up in my business constantly".
    - Petersipoi 4y ago
      I think you're both choosing to believe the reality you want to be true, as opposed to the one that actually is. To interpret her comment they way both of you are doing seems like reaching at best, and malicious at worst. I am no fan of FB or Zuck, but come on.
      - SSLy 4y ago
        Veiled comments in departure announcements are the way the executive class communicates about their peers to the outside world.
      - Trasmatta 4y ago
        Malicious? I think Zuck will be fine, mentioning that a sentence about him sounded kind of passive aggressive isn't exactly my definition of malicious.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    kind of reads like a stepford wife waking up
frisco 4y ago
I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for years and seems to have real trouble shipping hardware with reasonable spending. Now they’re scrambling to ship an iPhone alternative to get out from under Apple policy, but it really seems like they’re on constant defense now and have a very tough lift to actually get something truly mass market. I would be shocked if Apple, Microsoft or Google were irrelevant in 2030, but it is really possible (if not yet necessarily probable) that Facebook/Meta might actually just not exist in the same kind of way anymore then. When they first announced the rebrand I actually thought it could be genius and that there’s no way they could have been doing it without a really well considered, heavily backstopped plan… but epic strategic miscalculation seems to be going around a lot this year.
- SergeAx 4y ago
  On the other hand, no one expected that mediocre "show your domain" centralized networking platform with pictures and commenting will attract three billion people, but here we are.
- deeptote 4y ago
  I don't know anyone under 50 who actively uses Facebook.
  - seydor 4y ago
    Not necessarily a bad thing. The world is aging and old people have all the money
    - dvt 4y ago
      Absolutely a bad thing. Young folks have less money, but are more impulsive with spending. The 18-44 crowd is an extremely coveted market segment.
option 4y ago
Seems like great news for Meta.
amelius 4y ago
> Mark’s belief that people would put their real selves online to connect with other people was so mesmerizing that we stood by that door and talked for the rest of the night. Real selves, ha! More like jealousy (and other negative emotions) evoking versions of selves.
- LargeWu 4y ago
  One might argue that is many peoples' real version of themself.
- hihihihi1234 4y ago
  Some people experience so much of their reality through a screen that I wonder if maybe their online version is effectively their "real" self.
- rconti 4y ago
  As much as I hated Facebook's attempt-to-validate-your-real-name move back in the day, I think it's made the platform better than the competitors which never even tried.
samwillis 4y ago
I wander what this means for Nick Clegg, and how much of his promotion to be “the same level” as Sheryl and Mark was related to her intention to leave. He obviously isn’t a COO, but then Facebook has an existential legislative risk. So maybe that’s the indication, they need to be co-run by a policy leader, and opps is a solved problem. https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/16/nick-clegg-facebook-meta-president-global-affairs https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/16/nick-cleg... > “[Mark] added that the new role would put Clegg “at the level” of himself and Sheryl Sandberg”
- dmead 4y ago
  Reading your comment i thought this was going to be a different nick clegg than the one from British politics, but it wasn't!
- SilverBirch 4y ago
  The strategy seems to be "if we put this potato in a suit no one can really get too mad, and if they do we'll just bake him".
spinn3 4y ago
Well, more time to "Lean In" to activities like being in a relationship a guy that systematically covered up the sexual harassment of his female employees, I suppose? https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activision-blizzard-daily-mail-11650549074 https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activi...
- fnordpiglet 4y ago
  Yeah it’s almost certainly related to this. Timing is too close.
- my69thaccount 4y ago
KaiserPro 4y ago
That does explain a few things. Sandberg has been exceptionally quiet in the last few months, and given that the succession underneath her has been horribly bungled, I suspect she's chosen this time to bugger off. I'm not sure what this means, but I hope Sandberg's style of disingenuous personal "brand" disappears with her. Just say what you mean and give us time back.
- swyx 4y ago
  elaboration needed. what do you mean by succession under her has been bungled?
  - KaiserPro 4y ago
    after Mark D'Arcy left, there was a large re-shuffle and the person with the most experience didn't get the job, and left. After that there has been a steady roll of dominoes.
atlgator 4y ago
“Sheryl Sandberg Leaning Out of Facebook” would have been a better headline.
- umeshunni 4y ago
  Save that for Buzzfeed
fnordpiglet 4y ago
Has it been a little more than a month since it was revealed she used Facebook employees to protect her boyfriend at the time from media scrutiny? They were launching an investigation on April 21, 2022
shuckles 4y ago
I am always deeply saddened by the fact that so much of our digital social infrastructure was built by a company with little humanity. How many interactions have been enhanced, as opposed to monetized, by Facebook technology? My understanding is Sheryl was a supporter of this numbers based approach to the business, and maybe this will be a change for the better.
- madrox 4y ago
  I’m not convinced anyone else would have done anything different. I don’t believe this is a case of “the wrong people in the right place” since any unregulated massive opportunity in history has gone this way. Saying the wrong people were in charge robs us of learning for next time. More useful to say that this is a lesson in human nature and we should prepare for the next Facebook accordingly.
  - shuckles 4y ago
    Not sure I believe this. Instagram could’ve conceivably killed Facebook a decade ago if they’d chosen not to sell. Reminds me of Steve Jobs talking about Microsoft bringing about the dark ages of desktop computing: https://512pixels.net/2010/05/the-desktop-computer-industry-is-dead/ https://512pixels.net/2010/05/the-desktop-computer-industry-....
    - philistine 4y ago
      The dark age of social networks was absolutely started the second Facebook bought Instagram. We're still in it.
    - madrox 4y ago
      Then the question becomes whether Instagram would’ve become Facebook if they kept going. I believe they would have once they hit Facebook’s scale. Ironically, I believe you could take that Jobs quote, swap Apple for Microsoft, and you’d be talking about the mobile industry. I doubt I’m even the first person to observe that. You really do become the villain if you gain enough market dominance.
112358throw123 4y ago
- nso95 4y ago
  uh
htrp 4y ago
Javier Olivan, the company’s chief growth officer, will take over as COO this fall, a spokesperson told CNBC. Sandberg will continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors. (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg-says-she-is-stepping-down.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg...)
lvl102 4y ago
I think Sheryl is going out near the top here. She literally rode this generation of SV wave from the beginning. From a Larry Summers’ protege to one of the most influential executives on the planet. Despite all the negatives associated with Facebook, I think she was the best thing to happen to FB and Mark Zuckerberg.
- vineyardmike 4y ago
  > She literally rode this generation of SV wave from the beginning. > she was the best thing to happen to FB and Mark Zuckerberg. Or -hear me out- the person most influential in current SV business is not the best thing to happen to a (very young, impressionable) founder trying to grow his business. Pre-Sheryl ads were businesses having fb pages and advertising when your friend bought a product (very social-based). Post-Sheryl ads tracked you everywhere and learned about you.
  - hownottowrite 4y ago
    Which version actually worked?
    - seydor 4y ago
      both. Otherwise, was there an overall increase in consumption?
    - vineyardmike 4y ago
      We can never know what could’ve been. Clearly the method in use makes money. A lot of it. But FB and Marks reputation have never been worse. He probably would be rich-enough either way.
  - gowld 4y ago
    Every free product did that, not just FB.
- JKCalhoun 4y ago
  > Despite all the negatives associated with Facebook, I think she was the best thing to happen to FB and Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, my impression has been that she has provided cover for FB and Mark Zuckerberg.
1024core 4y ago
Note that while she linked to Dave's FB profile, she did not link to (her new fiance) Tom's profile. I guess even those at the top of FB value their privacy while they continue to invade ours....?
- seydor 4y ago
  do they really use FB?
- dylan604 4y ago
  It'd have been better if she linked to Tom from MySpace profile
- umeshunni 4y ago
  Looks linked to me.
wly_cdgr 4y ago
This reads like a love letter to her work husband
jmyeet 4y ago
Facebook has a view of the world on two axes: medium and audience. Audience here means if it's 1 to 1 (eg DMing) or 1 to 1,000,000 (eg Twitter). Format is seen as a progression: text -> audio -> video -> VR -> AR. I personally am skeptical that VR will ever be anything other than a niche and there are lots of reasons for this. Most notably after 10-15 years it's still yet to find that "killer app". My interpretation of this situation is that Facebook is directionless but this began years ago. This was most evident when Facebook decided to try and moderate objective truth online in response to the misinformation that really went mainstream in the 2016 election and since only ballooned further. It's a noble-sounding goal but a thankless one that you will never succeed in. People will disagree on what it's true. Additionally, Facebook's DNA is to optimize for interactions and nothing generates interactions better than misinformation, hate and preaching to the choir. The next misstep was to merge the online messaging platforms, probably to challenge the supremacy of iMessage. Nobody was happy about this. People don't actually want interoperability between FB Messenger, WhatsApp and IG Messaging. Beyond this IG lost its streamlined production direction in service of propping up other products. The Metaverse is just the latest iteration of an idea wildly hoping to find a product market fit. Many of us have read Snow Crash and VR is a common theme in sci-fi but I think it's just not going mainstream for a long time if ever. So we can only read the tea leaves here about why Sandberg left. Chris Cox famously left (and later came back) and used words that seemed to indicate he wasn't energized about the company's direction (when that direction was fighting misinformation). Sandberg obviously has generational wealth at this point so doesn't need to work. Is this departure a judgement on the direction of the Metaverse? It's really hard to say. But Sandberg is widely respected so this isn't a good outcome. It's even more interesting that she won't be replaced. I do wonder what the organizational impacts of this are.
- mjirv 4y ago
  > It's even more interesting that she won't be replaced. She’s being replaced by Javier Olivan, who has been at FB forever and is the head of their Growth org.
gkoberger 4y ago
I hadn't seen this before today, but NY Times claims that around a year ago (after the Jan 6th insurrection), Zuckerberg and Sandberg started to go their separate ways. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/mark-zuckerberg-sheryl-sandberg-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/mark-zuckerberg-... "The pair continued their twice-weekly meetings, but Mr. Zuckerberg took over more of the areas once under her purview. He made the final call on issues surrounding Mr. Trump’s spread of hate speech and dangerous misinformation, decisions Ms. Sandberg often lobbied against or told allies she felt uncomfortable with. Mr. Zuckerberg oversaw efforts in Washington to fend off regulations and had forged a friendly relationship with Mr. Trump."
- dereg 4y ago
  Sandberg has shown herself to be a true champion of moderation. One of her fine achievements at Facebook was to mobilize a team of enterprising Facebook employees to suppress allegations of harassment made against her then boyfriend, Bobby Kotick, from the news.
  - teachrdan 4y ago
    Had me in the first half.
- jtdev 4y ago
lalos 4y ago
Sandberg coming back as CEO when Zuck takes a break from leading the VR effort will be textbook Board of Directors.
- sealthedeal 4y ago
  This is the best comment so far. From my very limited knowledge though its almost impossible to remove Zuck from the company though.
  - lalos 4y ago
    If VR doesn’t pay off, there might be a Ballmer/MS situation. Zuck leaving might boost the stock and at the end of the day, he is just one big investor (with voting power).
- randomsearch 4y ago
  Makes sense. It’s a no brainer for her. If things go bad, she comes back to try to turn it around. If things go _really_ bad, she’s safe.
nobbis 4y ago
Explains the huge remodel of her property here in South Lake.
dang 4y ago
Url changed from https://www.facebook.com/sheryl/posts/10166258399565177 https://www.facebook.com/sheryl/posts/10166258399565177 to something that's not behind a login wall. If there's a better URL, we can change it again.
saulpw 4y ago
I think Sheryl Sandberg might go down as the Thomas Midgley Jr[0] of the 21st century; the single person most responsible for internet pollution and toxicity. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
- smt88 4y ago
  Zuckerberg and Google have far more share of responsibility than Sandberg, even though Sandberg is certainly also a morally bankrupt person who enthusiastically contributed to the poor state of modern society.
  - vineyardmike 4y ago
    Except Sheryl is responsible ads at both FB and Google. Maybe it’s not just one company. But the industry. Or maybe it’s her ;)
    - gowld 4y ago
      She worked on them, and maybe made them more successful. DoubleClick launched in 1996 and merged with Google in 2007. Google bought Urchin and Adaptive Path / Measure Map in 2005. The ad and tracking industry was not due to one person's influence.
    - smt88 4y ago
      Zuckerberg was the ultimate authority at Facebook. Everything the company did is his responsibility.
nowherebeen 4y ago
Seems like everyone including Zuckerberg's most loyal lieutenants are abandoning this sinking ship.
wly_cdgr 4y ago
My guess is she wants to succeed where Hillary failed and needs to distance herself from Zuck in preparation for 2028/2032, particularly after the effect the 2020 election and Jan 6 had on Zuck's and FB's public image
- smt88 4y ago
  I would take the opposite side of this bet. I don't think she'll run for president. She has too many skeletons in her closet, especially related to protecting Bobby Kotick.
  - nostromo 4y ago
    She seems squeaky clean compared to the Clintons, Trumps, and Bidens.
    - smt88 4y ago
      The key word is "seems". She may be more clean than they are, but they convinced their voters that they're ethical people -- or at least ethical enough. And all of them (except Trump) started with a clean slate in their first election, before running for president. Sandberg is starting from a bad spot. She has all the liabilities of Clinton without the decades of campaigning to give her a base of support.
i_have_an_idea 4y ago
It is said rats are the first to flee a sinking ship
kosyblysk666 4y ago
mistrial9 4y ago
Safra Catz, Sheryl Sandberg, Dianne Feinstein .. somehow, I did not expect this kind of "success" in California in 2022
pinewurst 4y ago
She’ll rematerialize running for the next available CA Senate seat.
- the_watcher 4y ago
  This crossed my mind as well.
TedShiller 4y ago
And?
truthwhisperer 4y ago
dredmorbius 4y ago
Related: https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr
temp_fb 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tsechin 4y ago
Well... If your rocket ship is going down, don't ask which parachute.
yalogin 4y ago
May be a dumb question, but what does a COO do at a software company?
- geuis 4y ago
  Good question. Term is explained fairly well here https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coo.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coo.asp
SkyMarshal 4y ago
I suspect she may be also positioning herself for a possible run at US President, if Biden retires in 2024 and Kamala Harris doesn't work out. She came to Facebook from DC, and now may be aiming to return there.
- the_biot 4y ago
  She was positioning herself that way years ago, with the book and lots of press etc, before it became widely accepted that Facebook was a pestilence upon the world on her watch. I think that ship has sailed.
- jahlove 4y ago
  Prediction: She is the next Disney CEO.
1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
"According to an April 21, 2022 report in The Wall Street Journal, Sandberg was part of a coordinated campaign to prevent the Daily Mail from publishing a story about a temporary restraining order given to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, by a former girlfriend. At the time of the order, Kotick and Sandberg were dating. Reportedly, in 2016 and 2019, Sandberg and Kotick worked with a team including Facebook and Activision employees to devise a strategy to convince the Mail not to publish the article. The article stated that Facebook is now reviewing whether Sandberg violated the company's rules." "An investigative report from The Wall Street Journal in November 2021 identified that despite his earlier claim, Kotick had been well aware of the past allegations mentioned in the California lawsuit but did nothing to change corporate policy, and had protected an employee who sexually harassed from being fired. Further, the report asserted that Kotick himself had threatened to kill an assistant on their voice mail.1 Activision Blizzard's board issued a statement that supported Kotick's efforts to lead the company,2 while employees, shareholders, and other voices from the industry urged Kotick to resign or to be replaced in light of these allegations.3,4,5" 1 https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kotick-sexual-misconduct-allegations-11637075680 https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kot... 2 https://www.wired.com/story/activision-blizzard-employees-done-with-ceo-bobby-kotick/ https://www.wired.com/story/activision-blizzard-employees-do... 3 https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/17/bobby-kotick-resignation-shareholders/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/17/bobby-... 4 https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/18/activision-employees-petition-kotick-resignation/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/18/activi... 5 https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/18/22789679/activision-blizzard-ceo-bobby-kotick-employees-petition-removal https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/18/22789679/activision-bliz... 6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_Fair_Employment_and_Housing_v._Activision_Blizzard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_Fair_...
lavachildren 4y ago
VR ain’t it. Not yet. The path goes thru Turing tested, AI powered, Digital Assistants. TADAs for short. Once the NPCs are intelligent enough to interact with humans, they will naturally entice consumers into VR for added intimacy. Nothing will change significantly until the TADAs are declared the new killer app. your welcome for the free analysis.. obvious really.
steve76 4y ago
zombiwoof 4y ago
Imagine if Facebook said they were investing in fixing hate speech, online bullying and said they would lose 4 billion a year fixing it. THAT is a company I believe everyone would get behind and support. What's there now is a joke, and Sheryl cashed big paychecks while looking the other way.
zombiwoof 4y ago
The future is real, not virtually real.
erung88 4y ago
Good timing. Seems like someone is able to foresee FB/META business going downhill...
metajunkies 4y ago
When you set out seeking to establish a colony you chose to name Facebook, you might not have willed it to expand into such a big universe. It's highly unlikely you could deduce how good a control you would have of your denizens who you would successfully turn into junkies over time. Now you are used to exploiting their malleability which gave rise to hegemony now palpable in your Meta.
xorcist 4y ago
The question that's on everyone's mind: Is Facebook the next Yahoo?
alangibson 4y ago
Facebook pivoting to focus on the metaverse will be one of the greatest business case studies of this century. They'll either own the entire next generation of the Internet, or faceplant so hard they end up being a marginal Craigslist replacement. Given that the Meta rebrand was received as if they'd just offered to turn everyone's lives into a permanent Zoom call, I'm in the faceplant camp for now.
rnoises 4y ago
Pretty much every comment is relating this to Meta and it's pivot to the metaverse, but isn't this far more likely to be fallout from her attempts to pressure Daily Mail into not reporting on her then-boyfriend, Bobby Kotick? https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activision-blizzard-daily-mail-11650549074 https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activi...
feynmanalgo 4y ago
> Sandberg said the decision to step down will allow her to focus more on her philanthropic work. After heading the company that created enormous psychological and sociological issues in the world and was/is involved in shady, anti privacy, illegal, anti-competition dealings she just gets to retire and focus on her "philanthropic" work. She's the modern equivalent of a robber baron.
s09dfhks 4y ago
I keep hearing rumors she may be running to take over for Dianne Feinstein
- Zerverus 4y ago
  She’s staying in the board so unlikely.
mzs 4y ago
This* from today was marked a dupe but it has new reporting with the likely causes instead of the PR: >More recently, there was a fresh irritation: Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal contacted Meta about two incidents from several years ago in which Ms. Sandberg, the chief operating officer, pressed a U.K. tabloid to shelve an article about her former boyfriend, Activision Blizzard Inc. Chief Executive Bobby Kotick, and a 2014 temporary restraining order against him. >The episode dovetailed with a company investigation into Ms. Sandberg’s activities, which hasn’t been previously reported, including a review of her use of corporate resources to help plan her coming wedding to Tom Bernthal, a consultant, the people said. The couple has been engaged since 2020. >As of May, that review was continuing, the people said. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31611219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31611219 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-sheryl-sandberg-quit-facebook-meta-11654215712 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-sheryl-sandberg-quit-facebo...

544 points by coloneltcb 4y ago

What are the secrets to how they made 3 billion people so happy to be users of Facebook (Meta)? Or, how the heck, 14 years ago, or 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago, could anyone have predicted the 3 billion people? Astounding. Any ideas how to understand that?

stareatgoats 4y ago
The time for an online people-directory was ripe. There can only be one such (for normal people), and Facebook made some fortuitous strategic decisions early on (minimize ads, real name policy, target university students, and more). Once Facebook achieved critical mass then they just had to avoid silly mistakes in order to succeed.
- graycat 4y ago
  Why early on was Facebook so much more promising than MySpace?
  - jbullock35 4y ago
    And what made it more promising than Friendster?
  - randomsearch 4y ago
    The Like button

formerkrogemp 4y ago

I was going to write a long post. But, good riddance.

bmitc 4y ago

Must be nice to retire a billionaire, making money off of other people's data, and getting out when the writing's on the wall.

rr808 4y ago

Whatever you think of FB politics (which I'm not sure how much influence she has), ops wise she has done an outstanding job at FB to make it run.

my69thaccount 4y ago
What are you talking about? She is the face of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- marcinzm 4y ago
  And Facebook/Meta has come out of all that with even more revenue than before. I call that a business success even if not an ethical success.
  - piva00 4y ago
    So an outstanding job just requires business to flourish, doesn't matter the means? I really don't agree with that.
    - bradlys 4y ago
      In a capitalistic system - yes. She’s won and there’s fuckall you can do about it. If you wanna play by a different set of rules - gotta change the entire landscape. No one is going to do that.
      - piva00 4y ago
        It's just sad that people spout this as an absolute unchangeable truth. She's won financially, completely lost morally and ethically. As a human she's a failure, as a capitalist she's a winner. Yes, it is the system, does not mean I will call that an outstanding job because we focus on one metric: profit/making money. It's pretty stupid to reduce existence to these terms because of an economical system.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

lbhdc 4y ago

It seems like the article link requires a FB account. Can anyone paste the contents or share a link that doesn't require a facebook account?

dhd415 4y ago
I think it depends on how many FB posts you've viewed already. It didn't require a login for me until I refreshed twice.
paxys 4y ago
It does not require a FB account. You can see it from an incognito window just fine.
- hollerith 4y ago
  I tried that just now, and got a "you must log in" page.
  - bornfreddy 4y ago
    Interesting, it works for me... Maybe try in a different browser to avoid supercookies / fingerprinting?
- lbhdc 4y ago
  I tried that, and got a log in page. I also tried to get archive.is to scrape it, and it also got a log in page.
- celsoazevedo 4y ago
  It redirects me to the login page, even with incognito. Even the Wayback Machine is getting redirected: https://i.imgur.com/84UDbjG.png https://i.imgur.com/84UDbjG.png Facebook and Instagram often do this when they don't like your IP (a problem with CG-NAT, VPN, etc).
rockemsockem 4y ago
It doesn't. I didn't login to anything.

bozhark 4y ago

You have to login to read this? Strange.

WaxProlix 4y ago
I'm not logged in and read it just fine.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
my69thaccount 4y ago
I can view it without a login. Here's a plaintext copy for people who have problems. https://pastebin.com/NjhMJThB https://pastebin.com/NjhMJThB
sp332 4y ago
The post privacy is set to "global", and I did not have to log in to read it. Try a private tab?
dkarl 4y ago
I agree, pretty bizarre for a public announcement.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

my69thaccount 4y ago

efrank02 4y ago
She’s one of the most powerful women in the world. Not self important just important.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
KaiserPro 4y ago
thats the Sandberg™ brand.
onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
1500 words isn't that many words. Most people when they send their farewell company email is like 500 words. She'd been at the company (at the top) for >10 years. What do you expect?
- my69thaccount 4y ago
  Since you read it all, can you tell me if there is anything in it aside from meaningless corporate platitudes? Is the expectation that more senior=more platitudes since nobody reads them and just looks at how long they are anyway?
qgin 4y ago
I mean, many people would consider her leaving to be an important event. For all intents and purposes, she ran one of the largest internet platforms for 14 years.

sealthedeal 4y ago

Today, I am sharing the news that after 14 years, I will be leaving Meta. When I first met Mark, I was not really looking for a new job – and I could have never predicted how meeting him would change my life. We were at a holiday party at Daniel L Rosensweig's house. I was introduced to Mark as I walked in the door, and we started talking about his vision for Facebook. I had tried The Facebook, as it was first called, but still thought the internet was a largely anonymous place to search for funny pictures. Mark’s belief that people would put their real selves online to connect with other people was so mesmerizing that we stood by that door and talked for the rest of the night. I told Dan later that I got a new life at that party but never got a single drink, so he owed me one. Many months later, after countless – and I mean countless – dinners and conversations with Mark, he offered me this job. It was chaotic at first. I would schedule a meeting with an engineer for nine o’clock only to find that they would not show up. They assumed I meant nine p.m., because who would come to work at nine a.m.? We had some ads, but they were not performing well, and most advertisers I met wanted to take over our homepage like The Incredible Hulk movie had on MySpace. One was so angry when I said no to her homepage idea that she slammed her fist on the table, walked out of the room, and never returned. That first summer, Mark realized that he had never had a chance to travel, so he went away for a month, leaving me and Matt Cohler in charge without a ton of direction and almost no ability to contact him. It seemed crazy – but it was a display of trust I have never forgotten. When I was considering joining Facebook, my late husband, Dave, counseled me not to jump in and immediately try to resolve every substantive issue with Mark, as we would face so many over time. Instead, I should set up the right process with him. So, on the way in, I asked Mark for three things – that we would sit next to each other, that he would meet with me one-on-one every week, and that in those meetings he would give me honest feedback when he thought I messed something up. Mark said yes to all three but added that the feedback would have to be mutual. To this day, he has kept those promises. We still sit together (OK, not through COVID), meet one-on-one every week, and the feedback is immediate and real. Sitting by Mark’s side for these 14 years has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. Mark is a true visionary and a caring leader. He sometimes says that we grew up together, and we have. He was just 23 and I was already 38 when we met, but together we have been through the massive ups and downs of running this company, as well as his marriage to the magnificent Priscilla, the sorrow of their miscarriages and the joy of their childbirths, the sudden loss of Dave, my engagement to Tom, and so much more. In the critical moments of my life, in the highest highs and in the depths of true lows, I have never had to turn to Mark, because he was already there. When I joined Facebook, I had a two-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter. I did not know if this was the right time for a new and demanding role. The messages were everywhere that women – and I – could not be both a leader and a good mother, but I wanted to give it a try. Once I started, I realized that to see my children before they went to sleep, I had to leave the office at 5:30 p.m., which was when work was just getting going for many of my new colleagues. In my previous role at Google, there were enough people and buildings that leaving early wasn’t noticed, but Facebook was a small startup and there was nowhere to hide. More out of necessity than bravery, I found my nerve and walked out early anyway. Then, supported by Mark, I found my voice to admit this publicly and then talk about the challenges women face in the workplace. My hope was to make this a bit easier for others and help more women believe they can and should lead. I am beyond grateful to the thousands of brilliant, dedicated people at Meta with whom I have had the privilege of working over the last 14 years. Every day someone does something that stops me in my tracks and reminds me how lucky I am to be surrounded by such remarkable colleagues. This team is filled with exceptionally talented people who have poured their hearts and minds into building products that have had a profound impact on the world. It's because of this team – past and present – that more than three billion people use our products to keep in touch and share their experiences. More than 200 million businesses use them to create virtual storefronts, communicate with customers, and grow. Billions of dollars have been raised for causes people believe in. Behind each of these statistics is a story. Friends who would have lost touch but didn't. Families that stayed in contact despite being separated by oceans. Communities that have rallied together. Entrepreneurial people – especially women and others who have faced obstacles and discrimination – who have turned their ideas into successful businesses. Last week, a friend saw a post about a mutual friend of ours having a baby and told me that she remembers how before Instagram, she would have missed this moment. When the women in Lean In’s global Circles community couldn’t meet in person, they used Facebook to encourage each other and share advice for navigating work and life during the pandemic. At an International Women’s Day lunch, a woman told me that her Facebook birthday fundraiser generated enough money to provide shelter for two women experiencing domestic abuse. Just last month, I heard about how in India, the Self Employed Women’s Association connects over WhatsApp to organize and increase their collective bargaining power. I’ve loved traveling the world (physically and virtually) to meet small business owners and hear their stories – like Zuzanna Sielicka Kalczyńska in Poland, who started a business with her sister selling cuddly stuffed animals that make white noise to sooth crying babies. They began with a single Facebook post in 2014 and have gone on to sell in more than 20 countries and build a workforce mostly made up of moms like them. The debate around social media has changed beyond recognition since those early days. To say it hasn’t always been easy is an understatement. But it should be hard. The products we make have a huge impact, so we have the responsibility to build them in a way that protects privacy and keeps people safe. Just as I believe wholeheartedly in our mission, our industry, and the overwhelmingly positive power of connecting people, I and the dedicated people of Meta have felt our responsibilities deeply. I know that the extraordinary team at Meta will continue to work tirelessly to rise to these challenges and keep making our company and our community better. I also know that our platforms will continue to be an engine of growth for the businesses around the world that rely on us. When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life. I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women. And as Tom and I get married this summer, parenting our expanded family of five children. Over the next few months, Mark and I will transition my direct reports and I will leave the company this fall. I still believe as strongly as ever in our mission, and I am honored that I will continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors. I am so immensely proud of everything this team has achieved. The businesses we’ve helped and the business we've built. The culture we've nurtured together. And I'm especially proud that this is a company where many, many exceptional women and people from diverse backgrounds have risen through our ranks and become leaders – both in our company and in leadership roles elsewhere. Thank you to the colleagues who inspire me every day with their commitment to our mission, to our partners around the world who have enabled us to build a business that serves their businesses, and especially to Mark for giving me this opportunity and being one of the best friends anyone could ever have.

cedricd 4y ago

That's pretty surprising. I know that there has been tons of controversy swirling around the company the past few years, but things have seemed relatively quiet lately, other than their recent bad revenue growth. Do people here think this is a shakeup at the company or that she legitimately wanted to do something else?

tempsy 4y ago
Is it really? I don’t think it is. Pre-Trump era she was more the public face of Facebook than even Zuck. Then when the Cambridge Analytica scandal basically did a 180 on the entire reputation of the company she effectively disappeared from the public eye.
- cedricd 4y ago
  Yeah. I suppose I mean that she's been disappeared for the public eye for a while, so why leave now? My guess isn't that maybe she's lost too much influence and just doesn't find the job interesting anymore.
  - tempsy 4y ago
    I mean hard to leave a job where you’re getting paid hundreds of millions.
    - bornfreddy 4y ago
      Does that still matter the second year and after that? In other words, is there a difference between having 100m and 200m? I would assume you can afford pretty much the same things with both of the amounts... (no first-hand experience)
      - chris11 4y ago
        You don't get paid that much money without being incredibly ambitious. Sure you got all the money you need, but what comes next? Sheryl Sandberg has literally changed the world. I'd guess choosing to redefine her life took a lot of thought.

minimaxir 4y ago

It's possible this announcement was intentionally timed against the media-consuming Depp/Heard trial verdict announcement in an attempt to bury the news. Meta stock went down a few points immediately after the announcement.

rockinghigh 4y ago
These moves are prepared months in advance. I'm not sure why you would link an unrelated trial about a movie star to the announcement. Sheryl is a billionaire, she probably wants to take time off.
- minimaxir 4y ago
  Prepared months in advance, but there's some flexibility on the exact timing of the announcement. EDIT: Apparently this was not actually prepared months in advance. > I’m told that Sheryl Sandberg notified Mark Zuckerberg that she would step down over the weekend https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1532100449095933952 https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1532100449095933952
- guerrilla 4y ago
  > I'm not sure why you would link an unrelated trial about a movie star to the announcement. They told you why, to bury the news, which they all have an incentive to do. If it wasn't the trial verdict (which is dominating the news), they could have waited until something else to displace it. News outlets have finite space and time and the public has a finite attention span, not too hard to take advantage of that.
iLoveOncall 4y ago
Yeah, because people that invest heavily in the stock market are the same people that read about celebrities in Closer.
- coastflow 4y ago
  The Washington Post is covering the trial heavily, as the defamation suit resulted as a response to an opinion-editorial that Heard wrote in The Washington Post (the trial is in Virginia because that is where the servers and printers of the WaPost are located).

waynesonfire 4y ago

She signed up for fb not meta

bborud 4y ago
My thoughts on Meta and the whole Zuckerverse thing is still "yeah, I think I'll sit this one out". I really don't want one of those Facehuggers strapped to my face.

SilverBirch 4y ago

I think it's really deserving of praise that Sheryl managed to join Facebook in 2008, joining right as it was clear Facebook would become a behemoth. She then spent 14 years helping to steer a young Mark Zuckerberg through some of the most immoral, damaging and discrediting decisions a company can make. Now, at the absolutely peak of Facebook, where it's losing users, it's reputation is so bad it literally had to change it's name and "pivot", now she steps aside. "To the victims of genocides organised on my platform, to the little girls who self-harmed looking at photos on our platform, to the businesses we destroyed through our arbitrary and capricious policy changes, my job is done here, it's been an honor"

miketery 4y ago
She also personally approved an anti-semetic smear campaign against Soros, because his trust gave money to some non-profit that were critical of facebook.
randomsearch 4y ago
I hope that you hold Zuckerberg in even more contempt. Do you?
- my69thaccount 4y ago
  Yes? Duh?

atourgates 4y ago

"Sitting by Mark’s side for these 14 years has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. [...] In the critical moments of my life, in the highest highs and in the depths of true lows, I have never had to turn to Mark, because he was already there." If this is an accurate reflection of her experience, I don't expect it's a side of Mark Zuckerberg most of us imagine exists.

ralph84 4y ago
Or it's a nice way of saying he's a micromanager.
- Trasmatta 4y ago
  For real, it almost read like a thinly veiled burn on Mark to me. Like, "give me some space Mark, you don't need to be up in my business constantly".
  - Petersipoi 4y ago
    I think you're both choosing to believe the reality you want to be true, as opposed to the one that actually is. To interpret her comment they way both of you are doing seems like reaching at best, and malicious at worst. I am no fan of FB or Zuck, but come on.
    - SSLy 4y ago
      Veiled comments in departure announcements are the way the executive class communicates about their peers to the outside world.
    - Trasmatta 4y ago
      Malicious? I think Zuck will be fine, mentioning that a sentence about him sounded kind of passive aggressive isn't exactly my definition of malicious.
- dylan604 4y ago
  kind of reads like a stepford wife waking up

frisco 4y ago

I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for years and seems to have real trouble shipping hardware with reasonable spending. Now they’re scrambling to ship an iPhone alternative to get out from under Apple policy, but it really seems like they’re on constant defense now and have a very tough lift to actually get something truly mass market. I would be shocked if Apple, Microsoft or Google were irrelevant in 2030, but it is really possible (if not yet necessarily probable) that Facebook/Meta might actually just not exist in the same kind of way anymore then. When they first announced the rebrand I actually thought it could be genius and that there’s no way they could have been doing it without a really well considered, heavily backstopped plan… but epic strategic miscalculation seems to be going around a lot this year.

SergeAx 4y ago
On the other hand, no one expected that mediocre "show your domain" centralized networking platform with pictures and commenting will attract three billion people, but here we are.
deeptote 4y ago
I don't know anyone under 50 who actively uses Facebook.
- seydor 4y ago
  Not necessarily a bad thing. The world is aging and old people have all the money
  - dvt 4y ago
    Absolutely a bad thing. Young folks have less money, but are more impulsive with spending. The 18-44 crowd is an extremely coveted market segment.

option 4y ago

Seems like great news for Meta.

amelius 4y ago

> Mark’s belief that people would put their real selves online to connect with other people was so mesmerizing that we stood by that door and talked for the rest of the night. Real selves, ha! More like jealousy (and other negative emotions) evoking versions of selves.

LargeWu 4y ago
One might argue that is many peoples' real version of themself.
hihihihi1234 4y ago
Some people experience so much of their reality through a screen that I wonder if maybe their online version is effectively their "real" self.
rconti 4y ago
As much as I hated Facebook's attempt-to-validate-your-real-name move back in the day, I think it's made the platform better than the competitors which never even tried.

samwillis 4y ago

I wander what this means for Nick Clegg, and how much of his promotion to be “the same level” as Sheryl and Mark was related to her intention to leave. He obviously isn’t a COO, but then Facebook has an existential legislative risk. So maybe that’s the indication, they need to be co-run by a policy leader, and opps is a solved problem. https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/16/nick-clegg-facebook-meta-president-global-affairs https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/16/nick-cleg... > “[Mark] added that the new role would put Clegg “at the level” of himself and Sheryl Sandberg”

dmead 4y ago
Reading your comment i thought this was going to be a different nick clegg than the one from British politics, but it wasn't!
SilverBirch 4y ago
The strategy seems to be "if we put this potato in a suit no one can really get too mad, and if they do we'll just bake him".

spinn3 4y ago

Well, more time to "Lean In" to activities like being in a relationship a guy that systematically covered up the sexual harassment of his female employees, I suppose? https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activision-blizzard-daily-mail-11650549074 https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activi...

fnordpiglet 4y ago
Yeah it’s almost certainly related to this. Timing is too close.
my69thaccount 4y ago

KaiserPro 4y ago

That does explain a few things. Sandberg has been exceptionally quiet in the last few months, and given that the succession underneath her has been horribly bungled, I suspect she's chosen this time to bugger off. I'm not sure what this means, but I hope Sandberg's style of disingenuous personal "brand" disappears with her. Just say what you mean and give us time back.

swyx 4y ago
elaboration needed. what do you mean by succession under her has been bungled?
- KaiserPro 4y ago
  after Mark D'Arcy left, there was a large re-shuffle and the person with the most experience didn't get the job, and left. After that there has been a steady roll of dominoes.

atlgator 4y ago

“Sheryl Sandberg Leaning Out of Facebook” would have been a better headline.

umeshunni 4y ago
Save that for Buzzfeed

fnordpiglet 4y ago

Has it been a little more than a month since it was revealed she used Facebook employees to protect her boyfriend at the time from media scrutiny? They were launching an investigation on April 21, 2022

shuckles 4y ago

I am always deeply saddened by the fact that so much of our digital social infrastructure was built by a company with little humanity. How many interactions have been enhanced, as opposed to monetized, by Facebook technology? My understanding is Sheryl was a supporter of this numbers based approach to the business, and maybe this will be a change for the better.

madrox 4y ago
I’m not convinced anyone else would have done anything different. I don’t believe this is a case of “the wrong people in the right place” since any unregulated massive opportunity in history has gone this way. Saying the wrong people were in charge robs us of learning for next time. More useful to say that this is a lesson in human nature and we should prepare for the next Facebook accordingly.
- shuckles 4y ago
  Not sure I believe this. Instagram could’ve conceivably killed Facebook a decade ago if they’d chosen not to sell. Reminds me of Steve Jobs talking about Microsoft bringing about the dark ages of desktop computing: https://512pixels.net/2010/05/the-desktop-computer-industry-is-dead/ https://512pixels.net/2010/05/the-desktop-computer-industry-....
  - philistine 4y ago
    The dark age of social networks was absolutely started the second Facebook bought Instagram. We're still in it.
  - madrox 4y ago
    Then the question becomes whether Instagram would’ve become Facebook if they kept going. I believe they would have once they hit Facebook’s scale. Ironically, I believe you could take that Jobs quote, swap Apple for Microsoft, and you’d be talking about the mobile industry. I doubt I’m even the first person to observe that. You really do become the villain if you gain enough market dominance.

112358throw123 4y ago

nso95 4y ago
uh

htrp 4y ago

Javier Olivan, the company’s chief growth officer, will take over as COO this fall, a spokesperson told CNBC. Sandberg will continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors. (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg-says-she-is-stepping-down.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg...)

lvl102 4y ago

I think Sheryl is going out near the top here. She literally rode this generation of SV wave from the beginning. From a Larry Summers’ protege to one of the most influential executives on the planet. Despite all the negatives associated with Facebook, I think she was the best thing to happen to FB and Mark Zuckerberg.

vineyardmike 4y ago
> She literally rode this generation of SV wave from the beginning. > she was the best thing to happen to FB and Mark Zuckerberg. Or -hear me out- the person most influential in current SV business is not the best thing to happen to a (very young, impressionable) founder trying to grow his business. Pre-Sheryl ads were businesses having fb pages and advertising when your friend bought a product (very social-based). Post-Sheryl ads tracked you everywhere and learned about you.
- hownottowrite 4y ago
  Which version actually worked?
  - seydor 4y ago
    both. Otherwise, was there an overall increase in consumption?
  - vineyardmike 4y ago
    We can never know what could’ve been. Clearly the method in use makes money. A lot of it. But FB and Marks reputation have never been worse. He probably would be rich-enough either way.
- gowld 4y ago
  Every free product did that, not just FB.
JKCalhoun 4y ago
> Despite all the negatives associated with Facebook, I think she was the best thing to happen to FB and Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, my impression has been that she has provided cover for FB and Mark Zuckerberg.

1024core 4y ago

Note that while she linked to Dave's FB profile, she did not link to (her new fiance) Tom's profile. I guess even those at the top of FB value their privacy while they continue to invade ours....?

seydor 4y ago
do they really use FB?
dylan604 4y ago
It'd have been better if she linked to Tom from MySpace profile
umeshunni 4y ago
Looks linked to me.

wly_cdgr 4y ago

This reads like a love letter to her work husband

jmyeet 4y ago

Facebook has a view of the world on two axes: medium and audience. Audience here means if it's 1 to 1 (eg DMing) or 1 to 1,000,000 (eg Twitter). Format is seen as a progression: text -> audio -> video -> VR -> AR. I personally am skeptical that VR will ever be anything other than a niche and there are lots of reasons for this. Most notably after 10-15 years it's still yet to find that "killer app". My interpretation of this situation is that Facebook is directionless but this began years ago. This was most evident when Facebook decided to try and moderate objective truth online in response to the misinformation that really went mainstream in the 2016 election and since only ballooned further. It's a noble-sounding goal but a thankless one that you will never succeed in. People will disagree on what it's true. Additionally, Facebook's DNA is to optimize for interactions and nothing generates interactions better than misinformation, hate and preaching to the choir. The next misstep was to merge the online messaging platforms, probably to challenge the supremacy of iMessage. Nobody was happy about this. People don't actually want interoperability between FB Messenger, WhatsApp and IG Messaging. Beyond this IG lost its streamlined production direction in service of propping up other products. The Metaverse is just the latest iteration of an idea wildly hoping to find a product market fit. Many of us have read Snow Crash and VR is a common theme in sci-fi but I think it's just not going mainstream for a long time if ever. So we can only read the tea leaves here about why Sandberg left. Chris Cox famously left (and later came back) and used words that seemed to indicate he wasn't energized about the company's direction (when that direction was fighting misinformation). Sandberg obviously has generational wealth at this point so doesn't need to work. Is this departure a judgement on the direction of the Metaverse? It's really hard to say. But Sandberg is widely respected so this isn't a good outcome. It's even more interesting that she won't be replaced. I do wonder what the organizational impacts of this are.

mjirv 4y ago
> It's even more interesting that she won't be replaced. She’s being replaced by Javier Olivan, who has been at FB forever and is the head of their Growth org.

gkoberger 4y ago

I hadn't seen this before today, but NY Times claims that around a year ago (after the Jan 6th insurrection), Zuckerberg and Sandberg started to go their separate ways. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/mark-zuckerberg-sheryl-sandberg-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/mark-zuckerberg-... "The pair continued their twice-weekly meetings, but Mr. Zuckerberg took over more of the areas once under her purview. He made the final call on issues surrounding Mr. Trump’s spread of hate speech and dangerous misinformation, decisions Ms. Sandberg often lobbied against or told allies she felt uncomfortable with. Mr. Zuckerberg oversaw efforts in Washington to fend off regulations and had forged a friendly relationship with Mr. Trump."

dereg 4y ago
Sandberg has shown herself to be a true champion of moderation. One of her fine achievements at Facebook was to mobilize a team of enterprising Facebook employees to suppress allegations of harassment made against her then boyfriend, Bobby Kotick, from the news.
- teachrdan 4y ago
  Had me in the first half.
jtdev 4y ago

lalos 4y ago

Sandberg coming back as CEO when Zuck takes a break from leading the VR effort will be textbook Board of Directors.

sealthedeal 4y ago
This is the best comment so far. From my very limited knowledge though its almost impossible to remove Zuck from the company though.
- lalos 4y ago
  If VR doesn’t pay off, there might be a Ballmer/MS situation. Zuck leaving might boost the stock and at the end of the day, he is just one big investor (with voting power).
randomsearch 4y ago
Makes sense. It’s a no brainer for her. If things go bad, she comes back to try to turn it around. If things go _really_ bad, she’s safe.

nobbis 4y ago

Explains the huge remodel of her property here in South Lake.

dang 4y ago

Url changed from https://www.facebook.com/sheryl/posts/10166258399565177 https://www.facebook.com/sheryl/posts/10166258399565177 to something that's not behind a login wall. If there's a better URL, we can change it again.

saulpw 4y ago

I think Sheryl Sandberg might go down as the Thomas Midgley Jr[0] of the 21st century; the single person most responsible for internet pollution and toxicity. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

smt88 4y ago
Zuckerberg and Google have far more share of responsibility than Sandberg, even though Sandberg is certainly also a morally bankrupt person who enthusiastically contributed to the poor state of modern society.
- vineyardmike 4y ago
  Except Sheryl is responsible ads at both FB and Google. Maybe it’s not just one company. But the industry. Or maybe it’s her ;)
  - gowld 4y ago
    She worked on them, and maybe made them more successful. DoubleClick launched in 1996 and merged with Google in 2007. Google bought Urchin and Adaptive Path / Measure Map in 2005. The ad and tracking industry was not due to one person's influence.
  - smt88 4y ago
    Zuckerberg was the ultimate authority at Facebook. Everything the company did is his responsibility.

nowherebeen 4y ago

Seems like everyone including Zuckerberg's most loyal lieutenants are abandoning this sinking ship.

wly_cdgr 4y ago

My guess is she wants to succeed where Hillary failed and needs to distance herself from Zuck in preparation for 2028/2032, particularly after the effect the 2020 election and Jan 6 had on Zuck's and FB's public image

smt88 4y ago
I would take the opposite side of this bet. I don't think she'll run for president. She has too many skeletons in her closet, especially related to protecting Bobby Kotick.
- nostromo 4y ago
  She seems squeaky clean compared to the Clintons, Trumps, and Bidens.
  - smt88 4y ago
    The key word is "seems". She may be more clean than they are, but they convinced their voters that they're ethical people -- or at least ethical enough. And all of them (except Trump) started with a clean slate in their first election, before running for president. Sandberg is starting from a bad spot. She has all the liabilities of Clinton without the decades of campaigning to give her a base of support.

i_have_an_idea 4y ago

It is said rats are the first to flee a sinking ship

kosyblysk666 4y ago

mistrial9 4y ago

Safra Catz, Sheryl Sandberg, Dianne Feinstein .. somehow, I did not expect this kind of "success" in California in 2022

pinewurst 4y ago

She’ll rematerialize running for the next available CA Senate seat.

the_watcher 4y ago
This crossed my mind as well.

TedShiller 4y ago

And?

truthwhisperer 4y ago

dredmorbius 4y ago

Related: https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr

temp_fb 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

tsechin 4y ago

Well... If your rocket ship is going down, don't ask which parachute.

yalogin 4y ago

May be a dumb question, but what does a COO do at a software company?

geuis 4y ago
Good question. Term is explained fairly well here https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coo.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coo.asp

SkyMarshal 4y ago

I suspect she may be also positioning herself for a possible run at US President, if Biden retires in 2024 and Kamala Harris doesn't work out. She came to Facebook from DC, and now may be aiming to return there.

the_biot 4y ago
She was positioning herself that way years ago, with the book and lots of press etc, before it became widely accepted that Facebook was a pestilence upon the world on her watch. I think that ship has sailed.
jahlove 4y ago
Prediction: She is the next Disney CEO.

1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago

"According to an April 21, 2022 report in The Wall Street Journal, Sandberg was part of a coordinated campaign to prevent the Daily Mail from publishing a story about a temporary restraining order given to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, by a former girlfriend. At the time of the order, Kotick and Sandberg were dating. Reportedly, in 2016 and 2019, Sandberg and Kotick worked with a team including Facebook and Activision employees to devise a strategy to convince the Mail not to publish the article. The article stated that Facebook is now reviewing whether Sandberg violated the company's rules." "An investigative report from The Wall Street Journal in November 2021 identified that despite his earlier claim, Kotick had been well aware of the past allegations mentioned in the California lawsuit but did nothing to change corporate policy, and had protected an employee who sexually harassed from being fired. Further, the report asserted that Kotick himself had threatened to kill an assistant on their voice mail.1 Activision Blizzard's board issued a statement that supported Kotick's efforts to lead the company,2 while employees, shareholders, and other voices from the industry urged Kotick to resign or to be replaced in light of these allegations.3,4,5" 1 https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kotick-sexual-misconduct-allegations-11637075680 https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kot... 2 https://www.wired.com/story/activision-blizzard-employees-done-with-ceo-bobby-kotick/ https://www.wired.com/story/activision-blizzard-employees-do... 3 https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/17/bobby-kotick-resignation-shareholders/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/17/bobby-... 4 https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/18/activision-employees-petition-kotick-resignation/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/18/activi... 5 https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/18/22789679/activision-blizzard-ceo-bobby-kotick-employees-petition-removal https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/18/22789679/activision-bliz... 6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_Fair_Employment_and_Housing_v._Activision_Blizzard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_Fair_...

lavachildren 4y ago

VR ain’t it. Not yet. The path goes thru Turing tested, AI powered, Digital Assistants. TADAs for short. Once the NPCs are intelligent enough to interact with humans, they will naturally entice consumers into VR for added intimacy. Nothing will change significantly until the TADAs are declared the new killer app. your welcome for the free analysis.. obvious really.

steve76 4y ago

zombiwoof 4y ago

Imagine if Facebook said they were investing in fixing hate speech, online bullying and said they would lose 4 billion a year fixing it. THAT is a company I believe everyone would get behind and support. What's there now is a joke, and Sheryl cashed big paychecks while looking the other way.

zombiwoof 4y ago

The future is real, not virtually real.

erung88 4y ago

Good timing. Seems like someone is able to foresee FB/META business going downhill...

metajunkies 4y ago

When you set out seeking to establish a colony you chose to name Facebook, you might not have willed it to expand into such a big universe. It's highly unlikely you could deduce how good a control you would have of your denizens who you would successfully turn into junkies over time. Now you are used to exploiting their malleability which gave rise to hegemony now palpable in your Meta.

xorcist 4y ago

The question that's on everyone's mind: Is Facebook the next Yahoo?

alangibson 4y ago

Facebook pivoting to focus on the metaverse will be one of the greatest business case studies of this century. They'll either own the entire next generation of the Internet, or faceplant so hard they end up being a marginal Craigslist replacement. Given that the Meta rebrand was received as if they'd just offered to turn everyone's lives into a permanent Zoom call, I'm in the faceplant camp for now.

rnoises 4y ago

Pretty much every comment is relating this to Meta and it's pivot to the metaverse, but isn't this far more likely to be fallout from her attempts to pressure Daily Mail into not reporting on her then-boyfriend, Bobby Kotick? https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activision-blizzard-daily-mail-11650549074 https://www.wsj.com/articles/sandberg-facebook-kotick-activi...

feynmanalgo 4y ago

> Sandberg said the decision to step down will allow her to focus more on her philanthropic work. After heading the company that created enormous psychological and sociological issues in the world and was/is involved in shady, anti privacy, illegal, anti-competition dealings she just gets to retire and focus on her "philanthropic" work. She's the modern equivalent of a robber baron.

s09dfhks 4y ago

I keep hearing rumors she may be running to take over for Dianne Feinstein

Zerverus 4y ago
She’s staying in the board so unlikely.

mzs 4y ago

This* from today was marked a dupe but it has new reporting with the likely causes instead of the PR: >More recently, there was a fresh irritation: Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal contacted Meta about two incidents from several years ago in which Ms. Sandberg, the chief operating officer, pressed a U.K. tabloid to shelve an article about her former boyfriend, Activision Blizzard Inc. Chief Executive Bobby Kotick, and a 2014 temporary restraining order against him. >The episode dovetailed with a company investigation into Ms. Sandberg’s activities, which hasn’t been previously reported, including a review of her use of corporate resources to help plan her coming wedding to Tom Bernthal, a consultant, the people said. The couple has been engaged since 2020. >As of May, that review was continuing, the people said. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31611219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31611219 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-sheryl-sandberg-quit-facebook-meta-11654215712 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-sheryl-sandberg-quit-facebo...