Jack Dorsey resigns as Twitter CEO, replaced by Parag Agrawal

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NEW YORK – Twitter shares are on the rise due to a report that co-founder Jack Dorsey will step down as CEO of the company.

Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology officer, will succeed Dorsey as the company’s new CEO, effective immediately.

Dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022. Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has been CTO since 2017.

in a published letter On his Twitter account, Dorsey said he was “very sad … but very happy” to leave the company and that it was his decision. On Sunday Dorsey had sent a cryptic tweet reading only “I love Twitter”.

Shares of Twitter, which have consistently underperformed the market, rose more than 10 percent in the opening bell on Monday. CNBC first reported that Dorsey could resign soon, citing anonymous sources.

“I decided to leave Twitter because I think the company is ready to leave its founders behind. My trust in Parag as CEO of Twitter runs deep. His work for the past 10 years has been transformative. I am deeply grateful for your skill, heart and soul. It’s his time to lead, ”Dorsey said in a statement.

“He has been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind all the critical decisions that helped change this company. “

Twitter was caught up in the heated political atmosphere leading up to the 2020 elections, particularly when it banned former President Donald Trump following his incitement to the January 6 riots in the US Capitol. Dorsey defended the movement, saying Trump’s tweets after the event resulted in a public safety risk and created an “extraordinary and unsustainable circumstance” for the company. Trump sued the company, along with Facebook and YouTube, in July for alleged censorship.

Dorsey has faced several distractions as CEO, starting with the fact that he is also the founder and CEO of the payments company Square. Some big investors have openly questioned whether he could effectively lead both companies.

Last year, the company reached an agreement with two of those activist investors keeping Dorsey at the top and giving a seat on the company’s board to Elliott Management Corp., which owned about 4 percent of Twitter’s shares, and another to Silver Lake.

While Twitter has high-profile users like politicians and celebrities and is a favorite of journalists, its user base lags far behind old rivals like Facebook and YouTube and newer ones like TikTok. It has just over 200 million daily active users, a common industry metric.

The early days of Twitter began with a cheep Posted by Dorsey on March 21, 2006, which said “I just set up my twttr”. Twitter went through a period of strong growth during its inception, but as growth slowed, the San Francisco company began tweaking its format in an attempt to make it easier and more attractive to use.

Dorsey became CEO of Twitter in 2007, but was forced to resign the following year. He returned to office in 2015. In his farewell letter, Dorsey said that he has “worked hard to ensure this company can separate from its founders and founders” and that focusing too much on whether companies are run by their founders is “severely limiting”. .

Twitter also announced on Monday a new board chairman, Bret Taylor, to replace its current chairman, Patrick Pichette. Pichette will remain on the board. Taylor has been on the Twitter board since 2016 and is president and COO of business software company Salesforce.

Dorsey is the CEO of Square, a financial payments company he founded, and some big investors have openly questioned whether he can be effective in leading both.

“The world is watching us right now, even more than ever,” Agrawal wrote in his email Monday. “Many people will have many different views and opinions on today’s news. It’s because they care about Twitter and our future, and it’s a sign that the work we do here is important. “



Reference-toronto.citynews.ca

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