OPINION: Sheryl Sandberg ran Facebook like a business while Mark Zuckerberg got to play with the cool toys, but now his attempt to make the 'metaverse' happen will take place without an adult in the room, writes columnist tpoletti.
When Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008, she was often referred to as the “adult in the room” who could help the co-founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, then just 24 years old, turn it into a company Wall Street could trust.
As she leaves, however, Zuckerberg and the company he has rechristened Meta Platforms Inc. FB, -4.06% are still not to be trusted. And after Facebook’s boy king announced in a Facebook post that he will not attempt to install an executive in a similarly powerful role, investors and users alike should be worried about the future of a company attempting to force its way to a prominent position in what Zuckerberg believes will be the next generation of the internet.
More recently, Zuckerberg has been driving the company to go all-in on the “metaverse,” spending billions in the latest attempt to make virtual reality happen. But without the righthand executive who has by some accounts been a grounding influence on him, why should investors trust Zuckerberg to be able to properly manage and monetize that effort?
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