INSTAGRAM CO-FOUNDERS RESIGN

ROCKVILLE: Instagram said on Monday cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have resigned as CEO and chief technical officer of the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook Inc, giving scant explanation for the move. The departures at Facebook’s fastest-growing revenue generator come just months after the exit of Jan Koum, co-founder of Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp. They also come at a time when Facebook’s core platform is under fire for how it safeguards customer data. Systrom wrote in a blog post that he and Krieger planned to take time off and explore “our curiosity and creativity again”. Their announcement came after increasingly frequent clashes with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the direction of Instagram. – Reuters

PERTAMINA NEEDS US$100B OVER 12 YEARS TO BOOST OUTPUT GROWTH

SINGAPORE: Indonesia’s state-owned energy company, Pertamina, needs US$100 billion (RM413 billion) over the next 12 years to boost oil output growth, a senior official said yesterday. The spending was required to satisfy Indonesia’s oil demand, Ernie D Ginting, the firm’s vice-president of corporate business strategic planning said. 70% of the amount will need to come from external funds and partnerships, she added without elaborating. Pertamina is also looking to acquire oil blocks overseas. “One of our strategies is to increase production. We are thinking more of Iraq, central Asia,” she said. – Reuters