Instagram's cofounders are quitting under a cloud, but their final act would have made Mark Zuckerberg happy
- Instagram's cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger said on Monday that Adam Mosseri will lead the company, effective immediately.
- By announcing that Mosseri will take the Instagram throne, it looks like the Facebook veteran has their blessing.
- That's useful for Mark Zuckerberg, who wants to take Instagram staff on his mission to integrate the app more closely with Facebook.
Facebook veteran Adam Mosseri was named as Instagram's new boss on Monday. But in a slightly unusual twist, the announcement was made not by Facebook, but Instagram's departing cofounders.
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced their resignation last week, sparking widespread reports that there were tensions between the duo and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Their goodbye letter didn't do much to defuse this perception, suggesting there might be bad blood between Instagram and its parent company.
The letter, which originally failed to mention Zuckerberg, was seemingly Systrom and Krieger's final act. But not so. On Monday, they struck a rather more upbeat tone in their statement announcing Mosseri as their replacement.
The pair have worked with Mosseri since he was shuffled into Instagram during a Facebook management overhaul in May. By announcing that he will take the Instagram throne, it looks like he has their blessing.
"We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a focus on craft and simplicity - as well as a deep understanding of the importance of community," they said of Mosseri.
This is useful for Zuckerberg, who reportedly clashed with Systrom and Krieger over wanting to integrate Instagram more with Facebook. It irked the cofounders, who unambiguously valued their freedom.
But now Zuckerberg's man is at the helm, and moreover, he has been welcomed by Instagram's founding fathers. This could go a long way to making other Instagram staff more comfortable with the direction of travel.
And it's not just Systrom and Krieger making more conciliatory noises. Facebook has also sought to reassure Instagram users that the social network is not going to lose its identity after the founders leave.
Speaking at Advertising Week conference in New York, Facebook's Carolyn Everson said Instagram will not simply become a Facebook clone.
"We have every incentive, in our bones, to have Instagram have a unique value proposition and not have it just become a replica of Facebook," the vice president of global marketing solutions explained. "That would completely destroy its value, and so that's completely the opposite of what we intend to do."