Dorsey has already begun making changes to the company’s board, starting with his announcement that the chief operating officer of the company would be Adam Bain. There are also no family relationships between Mr. Dorsey and any director or executive officer of Twitter and he has no direct or indirect material interest in any transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.
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On a conference call with media and analysts, Twitter board member Peter Currie said the next chairman would be an outside recruit. After Costolo’s exit, users expressed their criticism about the site’s user experience and questioned the relevance of Twitter.
For three months, Twitter has been searching for a permanent, new CEO since Dick Costolo departed.
Twitter’s investors don’t seem thrilled at having a CEO who divides his time between two companies. “That said, the naming of a highly respected CEO should mitigate investor concerns regarding the stability of leadership, as it should ensure that other key leaders at Twitter remain in place”. “And we stand for empowering dialogue”, Dorsey wrote on his Twitter account.
Investors applauded the move as Twitter’s stock surged $1.53, or nearly 6 percent, to $27.84 in early afternoon trading.
Nevertheless, despite a splashy debut on Wall Street in November 2013, Twitter has faced unrelenting scrutiny over a different bottom line: user growth (or lack thereof).
Twitter’s board initially had dug in against the idea of sharing Dorsey with Square, insisting on a CEO “in a position to make a full-time commitment to Twitter”. Other executives have, to date, failed to grow Twitter’s user base at a respectable clip.
This is Dorsey’s second run at being CEO.
Dorsey’s focus on outside hobbies, including sewing and drawing classes, and his frequent party appearances annoyed his co-workers.
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Twitter will now look for a new chairman as Mr Dorsey will not carrying on with that role as well as CEO, but he will continue as chief executive of Square, which he co-founded in 2009.
