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Venture capitalist Jim Breyer to leave Facebook’s board
MUMBAI: Accel Partners‘ Jim Breyer will leave Facebook‘s board of directors in June. The company was an early investor in Mark Zuckerberg‘s online social network.
Accel has enjoyed a 337 times return on investment. Facebook said, “On 23 April, James W Breyer notified Facebook of his decision not to stand for reelection to the Board of Directors at the company‘s annual meeting of stockholders to be held on 11 June. He will continue to serve as a director until the date of the annual meeting.”
“Jim made many, many important contributions during his long tenure on the board and we were well-served by his presence. We will continue to have a strong relationship with Jim and going forward, we‘re thankful we can continue to rely upon the tremendous depth and expertise of our recently expanded board.” The social networking site added.
Breyer wrote, “It has been a genuine honour to serve as an investor and board member since April 2005 as Facebook has grown from an emerging social network for US college students to a global service that connects over a billion people.
“After over eight years of board service, it‘s time to step aside in light of my other responsibilities, including my recent election to the Harvard University Corporation Board. I will leave the board knowing that Facebook is a global internet leader with exceptional leadership within the company and on the board.”
When Accel invested, Facebook had twenty employees and less than $1 million in revenue per quarter. Now it has over 4,500 employees and more than $1.5 billion in revenue per quarter.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
