By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Meta Platforms stock (NASDAQ:FB) traded 1.7% lower in premarket Tuesday as the company prepared for the exit of one of its early backers, billionaire investor Peter Thiel.
Thiel, on the company's board since 2005, has decided to retire. A rare voice of conservative politics in Silicon Valley, he aims to spend time helping elect candidates who he believes will advance former President Donald Trump’s agenda in the U.S. midterms elections later this year, according to Reuters.
Thiel is also a co-founder of online payments firm PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL).
“Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions. He has served on our board for almost two decades, and we've always known that at some point he would devote his time to other interests,” Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.
He will serve as a director until Meta's annual shareholder meeting but will not to stand for re-election, the Facebook-owner said.
Thiel became a shareholder of Facebook, a name it dropped last year, with an investment of $500,000. A 10% stake got him a seat on the board.