Russia’s top social network said yesterday it had accepted the resignation of its founder, Pavel Durov, after he announced earlier this month he was leaving and then apparently changed his mind.
On March 21 Durov told the company, VKontakte, he was resigning and did not formally withdraw his resignation, the firm’s press service was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
“Since... the set period of a month has passed and his resignation has not been withdrawn, Pavel Durov’s powers as general director of VKontakte have been terminated,” it said.
Durov has not yet commented on the announcement.
The 29-year-old entrepreneur had announced on April 1 that he had resigned as chief executive in a bitter conflict with a major shareholder, in a message some suspected was an April Fool’s joke.
Several days later Durov said in a message on his social networking page that he was retracting his resignation.
However, VKontakte executive director Dmitry Sergeyev was quoted in today’s statement as saying that Durov had not formally withdrawn his resignation.
“Despite the comments that followed and the discussions..unfortunately it was not withdrawn,” Sergeyev was quoted as saying by business daily Vedomosti.
A spokeswoman for VKontakte’s main stakeholder, Mail Group, confirmed Durov’s resignation to Vedomosti, adding: “We would have liked Pavel to stay in the company.”
With more than 100 million users concentrated in the ex-Soviet Union, VKontakte (In Touch) is Russia’s most popular social network, far outstripping Facebook.
Durov, who founded the company after leaving university, is often compared to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.