UPDATE 2-Instagram co-founders step down from company - NYT

Co-founders of Facebook Inc's Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, have resigned as the chief executive officer and chief technical officer, respectively, and plan to leave the photo-sharing app company in coming weeks, the New York Times reported late on Monday.

They have notified the photo-sharing app's leadership team and Facebook on Monday about their decision to leave, the newspaper reported https://nyti.ms/2xBdQ3w, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Systrom and Krieger did not give a reason for their departure, the paper said, adding that they planned to take time off after leaving Instagram.

An Instagram spokeswoman did not have an immediate comment. Facebook was not immediately available to comment outside regular business hours.

Instagram, which Facebook bought in 2012 for $1 billion, has more than 1 billion active monthly users and has grown by adding features like messaging and short videos. In 2016, it added the ability to post slideshows that disappear in 24 hours, a copy of Snapchat's popular "stories" feature.

Instagram is its parent's fastest-growing slice of revenue, but it touts 4 million fewer monthly advertisers globally. As Instagram has shown more ads, the average price per ad across Facebook's entire family of apps has declined earlier this year after a year of an upswing. A new privacy law in Europe also has affected prices.

The departure of Instagram co-founders comes months after the exit of Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp, another Facebook unit.