> also had to make a lot of promises. Some of those promises were even enshrined in the acquisition agreement: If Facebook imposed “monetization initiatives” like advertising onto WhatsApp, its founders’ shares would vest immediately, and they could leave without suffering any kind of financial penalty.

That's pretty interesting. They foresaw it of course and put a claim in the contract about it. Though when trying to trigger it FB fought back so Acton left the money on the table.

> Acton gave up some $900 million; Koum gave up about $400 million. You need to be really unhappy at work if you’re willing to quit a job that’s effectively paying you some $60 million per month, and from which you basically can’t be fired.

A new type of "fuck you" money VC style - you can have your dirty stock options I am out of here.

> or was he talked into breaking his promise by Sandberg and other executives looking covetously at WhatsApp’s unmonetized userbase? Either way, he has clearly failed a key leadership test.

The leaders tend to aggregate around them minions who are an exaggerated version of themselves. If they are liars they will surround themselves over time with even bigger liars. If they are narcissists they'll end up with minions who are narcissists. It's mostly natural selection. Well it happened in this case, there was a clash and those who don't agree leave. Over enough years it "distills" the company culture into whatever characteristics the top leaders have.