WhatsApp Billionaire Co-Founder Departs To Play Ultimate Frisbee And Collect Porsches

WhatsApp co-founder of Jan Koum is sitting on what is estimated to be a $9.1 billion fortune, and he will have plenty of time to enjoy that cash now that he has departed the company. That massive fortune came to Koum and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton when Facebook purchased their company back in 2009 for $22 billion in cash and stock. Acton and Koum haven't been very happy with Facebook, especially in recent months after the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach. 

In fact, Acton led a charge to encourage people to delete Facebook, biting the hand that fed him billions. So, what is 42-year-old Koum going to do with the remainder of his days? Sitting on that $9.1 billion fortune, he can do whatever he wants. What he wants to do is play Ultimate Frisbee, work on cars, and collect air-cooled Porsches. Ah, the life of a billionaire.

Speculation is running rampant that part of the impetus for Koum to leave Facebook came as much from clashing with Facebook as it did a desire to hoon about in old German sports cars. Reports also indicated that Koum was worried about alleged plans Facebook had to weaken the encryption used in WhatsApp. That encryption is what allows messages sent on the app to only be accessible to the sender and receiver.

Koum posted about his departure on his personal Facebook page, which Mark Zuckerberg replied to. The post is embedded below. Facebook hasn’t offered any official statement on Koum's departure.

WhatsApp isn't all roses, it has been criticized as a place for drug dealers to push their wares and for other nefarious activities. Police in South Wales even recently used a fingerprint in a WhatsApp photo to catch a drug dealer.