30 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2018
W
hatsApp cofounder
Brian Acton, 46, sits
in the cafe at the
glitzy Four Seasons
Hotel in Palo Alto,
California, and the only way you’d guess
he might be worth $3.6 billion is the $20
tip he briskly leaves for his cofee. Sturdi-
ly built and wearing a baseball cap and T-
shirt from a WhatsApp corporate event,
he’s determined to avoid the trappings of
wealth and runs his own errands, includ-
ing dropping of his minivan for mainte-
nance earlier that day. An SMS has just
come in from his local Honda dealer say-
ing “payment received.” He points to it
on his phone.
“his is what I wanted people to do
with WhatsApp,” he says of the world’s
biggest messaging service, which is
used by more than 1.5 billion people
and provides ad-free, encrypted mes-
saging as a core feature. “his was in-
formational, and useful.”
he past tense and wistfulness hang
in the air. More than four years ago,
Acton and his cofounder, Jan Koum,
sold WhatsApp, which had relatively in-
signiicant revenue, to Facebook for $22
billion, one of the most stunning acqui-
sitions of the century. A year ago he let
Facebook, saying he wanted to focus on
a nonproit. hen in March, as details of
the Cambridge Analytica scandal oozed
out, he sent a Tweet that quickly went
viral and shocked his former employers,
who had made him a billionaire many
times over: “It is time. #deletefacebook.”
No explanation followed. He hasn’t sent
another Tweet since.
Now he’s talking publicly for the
irst time. Under pressure from Mark
Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to
monetize WhatsApp, he pushed back
as Facebook questioned the encryp-
tion he had helped build and laid the
groundwork to show ads and facili-
tate commercial messaging. Acton also
walked away from Facebook a year be-
fore his inal tranche of stock grants
vested. “It was like, okay, well, you
want to do these things I don’t want to
do,” Acton says. “It’s better if I get out
of your way. And I did.” It was perhaps
the most expensive moral stand in his-
tory. Acton took a screenshot of the
stock price on his way out the door—
the decision cost him $850 million.
He’s following a similar moral code
now. He clearly doesn’t relish the spot- ROBERT GALLAGHER
FORBES ASIA
WHATSAPP
Facebook’s blockbuster $22 billion WhatsApp purchase
instantly made Brian Acton one of the richest people in
America. But as with his Instagram peers, his idealism clashed
with Mark Zuckerberg’s inancial juggernaut, leading to perhaps
the most expensive moral stand in history. For the irst time,
Acton explains why he walked away from $850 million.
BY PARMY OLSON
Seller’s
Remorse
