Concluding the past several months of executive shifting at Twitter, co-Founder Jack Dorsey has been named CEO.
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Mr Dorsey will remain the head of mobile payments company Square, but will step down as chairman of Twitter.
One Twitter stakeholder, Silicon Valley venture investor Chris Sacca, launched two “tweetstorms” to voice support for making Dorsey the permanent CEO. Shortly after becoming interim CEO, Dorsey acknowledged Twitter’s sub-par performance during a review of the company’s disappointing second-quarter results.
The news is not surprising since Mr. Dorsey was the obvious choice for the role; he is not only one of the founders of the company, but also has in depth knowledge which no other candidate would have had.
Initially, Dorsey appeared to have been excluded from running Twitter after the company said its CEO job would be full-time.
Referring to Square, he added: “Both companies have strong businesses and are well positioned to grow their impact in the world”.
Twitter said in an SEC filing that there are now no plans to provide Dorsey with any compensation for his role as CEO.
“We had anticipated [Williams] to be named chairman of the board, or at least take a more active role in product development as well”, said Suntrust analyst Robert Peck.
Dorsey served as Twitter CEO for two years before co-founder Evan Williams replaced him in 2008.
That’s not to mention the challenges Dorsey will face after a year of disaster, including Twitter’s leadership being fragmented, its board losing credibility with investors, and its stock price – despite rising nearly six percent as of the mid-afteroon after Dorsey’s announcement – still being valued at less than half of its post-IPO high in January 2014.
Globally, Twitter has 316 million users as of June 2015.
After being ousted from Apple in the mid-1980s, Jobs came back as the company’s interim CEO in 1997 and then stayed on oversee the creation of the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
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“I’ve been CEO of both companies [Twitter and Square] for over 3 months now”. What we stand for gives us objective, and that goal dictates our job ahead. The Financial Times reports Dorsey said he will do “whatever it takes” to turn Twitter around while still effectively managing Square.
