Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of Instagram, have resigned and will quit the company in the coming weeks, reports New York Times. Systrom, Instagram’s CEO and Krieger, CTO announced their departure in a statement on late Monday, saying that they are “ready for our next chapter” and that “building new things requires a step back.” The two did not give any reason for their exit. Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, and today claims to have 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. Last week, the company brought on board Instagram COO Marne Levine to replace Rose as VP of partnerships. Their departure is among the several recent top level exits at Facebook owned businesses: Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. Earlier this year, WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, who was also a board member of Facebook, quit the company after disagreements with the Facebook leadership over privacy and encryption. Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. Meanwhile, at least six top executives have left Facebook within a year. Corporate communications head Rachel Whetstone left the company in August for a public relations role at Netflix. The same month, Facebook’s vice-president of partnerships Dan Rose announced his departure for personal reasons. Alex Stamos, chief security officer, said in August that he would be leaving the company. In March, Stamos wrote to his colleagues at Facebook to exercise restraint while collecting data from users. “We need to intentionally not collect data where possible, and to keep it only as long as we…
