Mark Zuckerberg insists no rift behind Sheryl Sandberg’s Meta departure

Mark Zuckerberg has insisted there was no rift behind Meta’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg leaving the company after 14 years.

The social media titan insisted media reports about Ms Sandberg pressuring the Daily Mail to not run a story about her then-boyfriend, Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick, had played no part in her departure.

“Look, what I can say is that I don’t think any of the stuff that has been reported contributed to her leaving the company, of course you’d have to ask her about that,” he told CNBC’s Jim Cramer in an interview on Wednesday.

“What I would say is that I have nothing but gratitude for the amazing work that she has done for the company, she is going to stay on our board, she is a key person and a close friend.”

And he added: “I have seen some of this reporting too, and obviously when people allege things it is important to look into things and understand what is going on.

“But from my perspective, nobody should think that our company has anything but gratitude and love for the amazing amount of value that Sheryl has created that is certainly how I feel.”

Ms Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 and wrote about her departure in a 1 June blog post on the social media platform.

“I am not entirely sure what the future will bring,” Ms Sandberg wrote on Facebook.

“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.”

Mr Zuckerberg, who was on the channel to promote the company’s metaverse, also told Cramer that the company planned on eventually having one billion users in it.

“We hope to basically get to around a billion people in the metaverse doing hundreds of dollars of commerce, each buying digital goods, digital content, different things to express themselves, so whether that’s clothing for their avatar or different digital goods for their virtual home or things to decorate their virtual conference room, utilities to be able to be more productive in virtual and augmented reality and across the metaverse overall,” he said.