Threatening
the stability of Facebook’s most prized property, Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced their imminent departures on Monday.
Still involved in the social network
they sold to Facebook in 2012, Systrom and Krieger have since served as CEO and chief technical officer of Instagram.
“We’re now ready for our
next chapter,” Systrom said in a blog post, speaking on behalf of Krieger and himself. Without revealing any specifics, Systrom said he and Krieger plan to build "things" at some point in the
future.
“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again,” Systrom said. “Building new
things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs.”
Exactly when Systrom and Krieger plan to
put in their last days at Instagram remains unclear, and Facebook has yet to name their replacements.
According to The New York Times -- which broke the news -- Facebook executives
were only made aware of Systrom and Krieger’s decision to depart on Monday.
Facebook has a history of clashing with the leaders of companies it acquires.
On the news that WhatsApp
cofounder Jan Koum was leaving Facebook earlier this year, sources told The Washington Post that a power struggle was partially responsible for the departure.
Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion remains one of the biggest steals in tech history. Indeed, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jitendra Waral recently estimated that Instagram
is now worth over $100 billion.
With roughly 1 billion monthly active users and growing, Waral calculated that Instagram will take in more than $10 billion in revenue over the next 12
months.
The share of revenue that Instagram contributes to Facebook is set to rise from about 10% to 16%, year-over-year, according eMarketer.