Facebook loses another important executive as Oculus co-founder resigns

Facebook is losing another founder.

Oculus cofounder Brendan Iribe is leaving the company, four years after Facebook's acquisition. Iribe becomes the latest high-profile founder to exit Facebook amidst a wave of executive departures from the company.

"Working alongside so many talented people at Oculus and Facebook has been the most transformative experience of my career," Iribe wrote in a Facebook post. "The success of Oculus was only possible because of such an extraordinary team effort."

Iribe didn't give a reason for his departure, only saying "this will be the first real break I've taken in over 20 years."

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Iribe had stepped down from his role as Oculus CEO in 2016, but he remained at Facebook, leading the PC VR group. Palmer Luckey, Oculus' often controversial cofounder, left in 2017 after it was reported he had helped fund a pro-Donald Trump group.

The company's VR efforts are now overseen by longtime Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth, who serves as VP of consumer hardware.

The past year has seen an unprecedented number of executive exits at Facebook. The company's security chief, Alex Stamos, recently left, as did the company's communications head Elliot Schrage.

And that's just for starters. Instagram cofounders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom stepped aside last month amid reports the pair were unhappy with Facebook's increasing control over the service. Systrom admitted last week that there were "tensions" at the company. And WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and Brian Acton (who has publicly bashed Facebook) have also left in the last year.