Under pressure from Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to monetize WhatsApp, [Acton] pushed back as Facebook questioned the encryption he'd helped build and laid the groundwork to show targeted ads and facilitate commercial messaging. Acton also walked away from Facebook a year before his final tranche of stock grants vested. "It was like, okay, well, you want to do these things I don't want to do," Acton says. "It's better if I get out of your way. And I did." It was perhaps the most expensive moral stand in history. Acton took a screenshot of the stock price on his way out the door — the decision cost him $850 million.
Seems like he's a lot happier serving as the executive chairperson of Signal.