CEO Jack Dorsey Exits Twitter
Posted on 11/29/2021
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) CEO and Co-Founder Jack Dorsey (age 45) tweeted, “not sure anyone has heard but,
I resigned from Twitter”.
For over a year, Twitter was looking to replace Jack Dorsey and find a successor. Dorsey didn’t have voting control at Twitter and last March Twitter accepted a large investment from Silver Lake Partners.
Activist investor Elliott Investment Management L.P. released the following statement on behalf of Managing Partner Jesse Cohn and Senior Portfolio Manager Marc Steinberg regarding the leadership changes announced at Twitter: “Twitter is the leading global medium for real-time conversation and engagement, and our collaboration with Jack and the company for the past two years has been productive and effective. Twitter is now executing against an ambitious multi-year plan to dramatically increase the company’s reach and value, and we look forward to the next chapter of Twitter’s story. Having gotten to know both incoming Chairman Bret Taylor and incoming CEO Parag Agrawal, we are confident that they are the right leaders for Twitter at this pivotal moment for the company.”
Elliott Investment Management stepped off the Twitter board earlier in 2021, but it continued to be involved. The activist hedge fund wanted new management and to increase product innovation.
Dorsey was serving as both the CEO of Twitter and Square, his digital payments company. His leadership had been questioned by employees and investors. Parag Agrawal, the Twitter’s chief technology officer, is taking over as CEO effective immediately. Jack Dorsey will remain a member of the Twitter board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders, the company said. This means Dorsey is severing ties from Tiwtter. Salesforce President and Chief Operating Officer Bret Taylor will become the chairman of the board, succeeding Patrick Pichette, a former Google executive, who will remain on the board as chair of the audit committee.
Jack Dorsey stated he decided to leave because Twitter is “ready to move on from its founders.”