In July this year, the then CEO Dick Costolo had stepped down from his position and Dorsey was appointed as the interim CEO as the Board scouted for a new head. He previously worked at News Corp. and Fox Audience Network. The headquarters of Twitter and Square are within a block of each other, possibly making it easier for Dorsey to split his duties at the two companies.
Advertisement
Jack Dorsey is officially back as Twitter’s permanent CEO, which means his other company, Square, has to share him for good (for now). Costolo, who served on the board during the transition process, is stepping down from the position Monday. 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. During its last quarterly results, Dorsey noted that the company needs to do a better job explaining what Twitter actually does.
As one of the founders of the company, Dorsey has an unrivalled knowledge of where Twitter comes from, what is at its heart, and where it should be heading. Dorsey won’t get a penny for his new gig.
In a statement on his personal blog, Evan Williams, Medium CEO, former Blogger & Twitter founder, and former Twitter CEO himself, said “It’s a cliche to say tech companies need to be founder-led, just because most great ones are”. Although the company generated $938 million in revenue during the first half of this year, Twitter still lost $299 million.
Shebly Seyrafi, analyst at FBN Securities, said Twitter might be seeking to limit Dorsey’s already heavy workload. He’s chairman and CEO of that company, in addition to now being CEO of Twitter.
In an attempt to fuel user growth, Twitter has recently acquired Periscope, a mobile live video streaming app, which allows Twitter users to livestream video from their smartphones directly to their followers.
Advertisement
Twitter shares were up 2.6% during trading before the opening bell on Monday.
