WhatsApp co-founder leaves company to start non-profit organization

One of WhatsApp’s co-founders, Brian Acton, has announced on Facebook that he is leaving the company. He is founding a non-profit organization and says he will release more details about this new project in the coming months.

In a Facebook post, Brian Acton said he is grateful that at his age he has the flexibility to take on new risks and focus on what he loves most. The nonprofit he will start will focus on the area where nonprofit, technology and communications converge.

Facebook announced in February 2014 that it wanted to acquire WhatsApp for an amount of 16 billion dollars, converted then about 11.6 billion euros. This acquisition was completed in October, ultimately for an amount of approximately $15 billion in shares and cash.

American Brian Acton co-founded WhatsApp with Ukrainian Jan Koum in 2009. Before that, both worked at Yahoo. Acton is a computer programmer who graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in computer science.

.