After more than a decade of spearheading Facebook's most important initiatives, Sheryl Sandberg will soon relinquish her position as chief operating officer of Meta Platforms (META -11.88%).
Sandberg joined Facebook back in 2008. She was brought on to serve as a key advisor to a young co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. "When Sheryl joined me in 2008, I was only 23 years old and I barely knew anything about running a company," Zuckerberg said in a recent Facebook post.
Along with Zuckerberg, Sandberg has been criticized in recent years for not doing enough to combat misinformation and hate speech on Facebook's sites. Data privacy issues, such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, also happened during her watch.
However, Sandberg is widely credited with helping to build Facebook into the juggernaut that it is today. During her tenure, the social media network became an indispensable advertising platform for millions of businesses -- and a daily destination for billions of users.
Moreover, Sandberg has long been viewed as the perfect complement to Zuckerberg. Her operational expertise helped to implement Zuckerberg's visionary ideas. She also helped to scale Facebook's technological developments into massively popular -- and often highly profitable -- products.
Billions of people use Meta Platform's apps every day. Image source: Getty Images.
It's clear that Sandberg's loss will be felt. Zuckerberg admitted as much. "I don't plan to replace Sheryl's role in our existing structure," Zuckerberg said. "I'm not sure that would be possible since she's a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way."
Instead, Zuckerberg will reorganize the company's product and business groups to better integrate them under other leaders. Meta's current chief growth officer, Javier Olivan, will step into the COO role when Sandberg steps down in the fall. But his responsibilities will be somewhat different than Sandberg's and perhaps not so all-encompassing.
Importantly, Zuckerberg will remain firmly entrenched as Meta's CEO. Sandberg's departure will afford him the opportunity to remake the company's management structure to better align with his metaverse ambitions.
Zuckerberg will also continue to have access to Sandberg's counseling since she will remain on the company's board of directors.
So, should you sell Meta's stock?
There's no doubt that Sandberg's exit will be a significant loss. But Zuckerberg remains at the helm and the key architect of the social media titan's long-term growth strategy. He's learned a great deal from Sandberg, and he's likely to apply those lessons to help Meta achieve its grand ambitions in the coming decade.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram are set to remain vital advertising platforms for countless businesses, both large and small. The profits they generate should help to fund Meta's metaverse plans while delivering solid returns to shareholders along the way.
So, if you own Facebook stock, Sandberg's resignation should not convince you to sell your shares.
