Twitter co-founder and interim chief executive Jack Dorsey has confirmed four top executives are to leave the company, but claims the departures are voluntary.
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Katie Jacobs Stanton, Twitter’s media head and Product head, Kevin Weil, and Alex Roetter, its head of engineering have been expelled for failing to turn around the growth prospects of the company according to a person familiar with the matter.
Dorsey’s plan for getting Twitter out of a growth slump depends on enhancing the product, making it easier for people to use and less intimidating for newcomers to the social-media service known for its 140-character limit.
Twitter is heading for changes and not just one. Different reasons were cited for the various departures – some, like Stanton’s, are by choice.
Recode reports that Twitter is set to fill its CMO post by hiring American Express’ executive vice president of global advertising, marketing and digital partnerships Leslie Berland; nothing official has been announced as yet.
The company has enacted a temporary transition plan in which chief operating officer Adam Bain will oversee not only the revenue-related product teams, but also the media and human resource departments.
It also said that Jason Toff, head of Twitter’s video streaming service Vine, may also depart, as would its business development leader, Jana Messerschmidt, who has expressed unwillingness to continue further.
According to Dorsey, the four executives weren’t fired, but rather “chose to leave”.
American Express declined to comment, while Twitter was not immediately available for comment.
Various other reports confirm that at least three executives are leaving the company.
But Twitter shares have plunged 50% since he rejoined and were last at $17.84, well below its 2013 IPO price of $26.
“I’m personally grateful to each of them for everything they’ve contributed to Twitter”, Dorsey wrote in a tweet. He will apparently be going to work on VR at Google.
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Currently, Twitter has more than 300 million users, which was already surpassed by Instagram with 400 million users previous year.
