Pressure from investors in the company who were unhappy with the firm’s user growth is largely believed to have forced Mr Costolo out after five years (since 2010).
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Twitter confirmed the news Monday morning (Oct. 5) that the decision to appoint Jack Dorsey – Twitter‘s founder – as permanent CEO was approved by the board on September 30.
Dorsey served as Twitter’s president and CEO from May 2007 to October 2008. Bain was one of several other candidates for the CEO role, as was CFO Anthony Noto. But while that may free up Dorsey’s time to deal with running both Square and Twitter, straddling both top positions may make Square’s rumored path towards an IPO much more hard. The board has expressed their desire that the new Twitter CEO be able to make a full-time commitment to the company, but with Jack’s attentions split, that might not be possible.
Bain, who had served as the company’s chief revenue officer prior to the news, tweeted that Dorsey has the ability to energize the Twitter team, as well as, and perhaps more importantly, connect with external partners. Mr. Dorsey, will step down from his position of chairman, however, he will retain his position as a board member. The Google veteran was soon promoted to CEO in 2010 as Williams was also pushed out.
The company made it official with a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing made public today.
While he was away from Twitter Dorsey developed a separate business called Square, which facilitates card payments via mobile devices.
“My focus is to build teams that move fast, and learn faster”, Dorsey said in a tweet.
Tech news website Re/code first reported Dorsey’s permanent appointment last week.
Reducing conflicts of interests and minimizing head butting, Dorsey has stepped down from his role as Chairman (though he remains on the board) and former Twitter CEO Costolo has resigned from Twitter’s board.
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However, Twitter’s shares rose 1.9 percent to $26.80 in premarket trading. He continues to see big challenges for Twitter, and questions how a non-full time CEO would bring a turnaround, amid the current challenging environment.
