Metacafe was once the hottest video sharing site, and although it’s growth has seemed to falter over the past year, it still boasted 28 million unique visitors during March.

But that hasn’t stopped the service’s founders, Arik Czerniak and Ofer Adler, from leaving the company, and cashing in their shares to the tune of $5 million on their way out of the door.

No Longer CEO

Czerniak had already stepped down as CEO of the company in February 2007, just months after the company was reportedly offered to interested buyers for between $200 and $300 million.

Now, according to Israeli newspaper The Marker, both he and fellow founder Adler have left the company for good. Between them the pair are thought to have held only 5% of the company’s shares.

The original article in The Marker, and reiterated by Techcrunch, claims that the pair may have had conflicts with new CEO Hachenburg over the strategic direction of the company.

The Future Still Looks Good

The company still looks to be in good financial shape, having raised more than $45 million in funding rounds so far.

What makes Metacafe different from nearly all of it’s competitors is the focus on user generated content, which coupled with the revenue sharing scheme for content creators, makes it a good fit for producers.

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