Key Takeaways:
- On Monday, Twitter announced that the CEO of Twitter would step down, and Parag Agrawal to take his place.
- In a statement posted on his verified Twitter account, he said, “I want you to know that this was my decision, and I own it.”
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of Twitter is stepping down as the company’s CEO. Twitter’s CTO, Parag Agrawal, will take over as the company’s new CEO, effective immediately.
Dorsey is also the CEO of Square, a digital payments company, and his odd dual role has irritated some investors over the years. Dorsey returned to Twitter’s executive suite in 2015 after a years-long hiatus. Last year, Elliott Management, the activist fund that had previously attacked AT&T, campaigned for Dorsey’s ouster as CEO before reaching an agreement with the company’s executives.
According to David Faber, the change is expected to happen in the “near term,” a longstanding anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box, although he admitted he didn’t know “much else” about the matter. But, according to sources, he mentioned “many people” familiar with Dorsey and the company.
“I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. However, my trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past ten years has been transformational. I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It’s his time to lead,” stated Dorsey.
Following huge gains in 2020, the Twitter stock has been trading sideways in 2021 as the firm deals with ad instability and tries to define its content management policies. Twitter has banned many users, including former President Donald Trump, for postings that it claims to incite violence or distribute false information. This year, Dorsey was one of the tech CEOs invited to appear before Congress concerning the role of tech platforms in the January 6 assault and radicalization more broadly.
“He’s been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around,” Dorsey claimed in the email to staff Monday.
According to the corporation, Dorsey will remain on the board until at least 2022, with Bret Taylor taking over as independent chairman. Agrawal, who has served as Twitter’s chief technology officer since 2017, will take over as CEO immediately.
On December 7, Agrawal and current CFO Ned Segal will speak at a Barclays investor event.
Dorsey would later sell his first tweet, “just setting up my twttr,” as an NFT, raising nearly $3 million for charity.
Nonetheless, because of his focus on cryptocurrency, which has obvious implications for his other company, Square, Twitter has had some rough patches. In its most recent quarterly results report, the company failed Wall Street revenue and profits per share projections and swung to a loss due to a lawsuit.
The shares of Twitter jumped more than 10% in the minutes after CNBC’s David Faber first reported that Dorsey would be stepping down.
Activist investors Elliot Management pushed for a change at the top of the company in early 2020, before striking a deal with Silver Lake later that year that included a $1 billion investment and a promise from Dorsey to “evaluate the CEO succession plan” with Dorsey and “and make recommendations consistent with corporate governance best practices concerning the elimination of the Company’s staggered board.”
Last month, Twitter reported a 37% increase in quarterly income, bringing its ad sales to $1.14 billion, as the company appeared to sidestep the worst of the impact of Apple Inc.’s AAPL latest iOS update’s privacy measures.
