Twitter founder resigns as CEO

There’s now one less character at Twitter.

Controversial founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of the social media giant for the second time Monday, under pressure from investors frustrated that the company still hasn’t turned its large user base into a bigger money maker and amidst criticism of the role of social media companies in spreading misinformation.

Dorsey was replaced, effective immediately, by the company’s chief technology officer Parag Agrawal. Longtime technology industry executive Bret Taylor was named chair of the board.

“The company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey said in a written statement. “My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational. I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart and soul. It’s his time to lead.”

Dorsey, who founded Twitter in 2006, first stepped down as CEO in 2008, but decided to take up the role again in 2015.

Twitter has consistently lagged behind Facebook when it comes to monetizing its user base, and has also been eclipsed among younger social media users by newer platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.

It has also seen its share price growth quickly outpaced by other technology industry companies like Facebook, Alphabet and Microsoft.

But the appointment of Taylor and Agrawal looks like the company has decided to stay its current course, said Scott Kessler, technology sector lead at Third Bridge Group, an investment research company.

“If you look at who they’re bringing in, that sure doesn’t look like they’re making a dramatic change,” said Kessler. “These are both technology guys. They’re not monetization and revenue specialists.”

According to Bloomberg, Dorsey came under heavy criticism from activist investor Elliott Management in 2020, but was allowed to stay on if the company grew its revenues by 20 per cent.

In a statement Monday, Elliott Investment Management praised Dorsey.

“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,” Elliott said.

Dorsey, 45, is also head of payments company Square Inc. and has been taking an increasing interest in cryptocurrencies. Square’s stock performance has been far better than Twitter, with the shares jumping almost 23-fold since its initial public offering in 2015.