Feb. 8 (UPI) — Billionaire technology investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel will step down from the board of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, after his current term expires, the company announced Monday.
Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and key mentor of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, will not seek reelection to the Meta board at the company’s upcoming 2022 annual meeting, Zuckerberg said in a statement.
“Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I’m deeply grateful for everything he has done for our company — from believing in us when few others would, to teaching me so many lessons about business, economics, and the world,” he said.
Thiel, who joined Facebook’s board in April 2005, called it “a privilege to work with one of the great entrepreneurs of our time.”
“Mark Zuckerberg’s intelligence, energy, and conscientiousness are tremendous. His talents will serve Meta well as he leads the company into a new era,” he said.
No reason was given for Thiel’s decision, but the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported he is interested in focusing his interests on political candidates who support the agenda of former President Donald Trump.
His decision comes after Facebook reached $1 trillion in market capitalization and racked up more than $117 billion in revenues last year.
Last week, however, the company issued a lower-than-expected first-quarter earnings forecast, triggering a 26% stock price free-fall — the worst drop since its founding.
Thiel’s political stance as a high-profile backer of Trump earned him praise from Republicans and criticism from some prominent members of Silicon Valley’s mainly Democratic corporate establishment.
Facebook’s employee base has often criticized Zuckerberg’s relationship with the conservative billionaire, with some blaming it for the CEO’s “hands-off” position on rooting out misinformation and taking down inflammatory posts, The Washington Post reported.
