By Cristian Bustos. Originally published at ValueWalk.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has announced the departure of Peter Thiel from the company’s board. A controversial figure, given its support for Donald Trump and the Gawker Media lawsuit, Thiel’s investments in Facebook rival start-ups also hogged headlines during his tenure.
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Goodbye
As reported by CNBC, Peter Thiel is set to continue on Meta’s board until the next annual meeting, during which he will not stand for re-election. Thiel was the co-founder of PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) and was a close figure for Mark Zuckerberg.
One of Facebook’s earliest investors, he was on the board since 2005, ever since the company has seen success galore by reaching $1 trillion in market cap and accruing revenue of over $117 billion last year.
Thiel’s tenure, however, has been an agitated one, both financially and politically, as he “dumped a huge portion of his shares in the company’s 2012 IPO and more shortly thereafter, and he hasn’t shied away from investing in other start-ups that either compete with Facebook or use its data in unsanctioned ways,” CNBC informs.
His political views have drawn the greatest criticism, and have made a great impact on Facebook’s reputation.
Trump
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Thiel was an active Donald Trump supporter despite the billionaire’s radical views on immigration and accusations of sexual harassment. After giving a speech during that year’s Republican National Convention, Thiel invited several Silicon Valley executives to a meeting at the Trump Tower.
Back then, Trump said, “I want to start by thanking Peter, because he saw something very early, maybe before we saw it. And of course, he’s known for that… he’s ahead of the curve.”
“While Thiel has been fairly quiet about Trump in recent years, he’s continued to back Republican candidates for other offices. He put over $10 million into a super PAC that’s supporting J.D. Vance, who’s running for U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2022.”
In 2004, Thiel invested in Facebook for the first time with a sum of $500,000 becoming the first prominent outside investor. His support continued despite investments in rival technologies and companies such as Clearview AI.
Meta is part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders’ families.
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