Twitter announced on Monday that Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is stepping down and that Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal will take over as CEO.
Following the announcement, Twitter’s stock rose nearly 10% before falling 2.7%.
Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006, is stepping down after supervising the development of new ways to publish content, such as newsletters and audio discussions, while also serving as CEO of Square Inc., his payments processing startup.
The new CEO will take effect immediately, while Dorsey will stay on the board of directors until his tenure ends at the annual shareholder meeting in 2022.
Jack Dorsey announced his decision to step down in an email to Twitter employees on Monday, citing the strength of Agrawal’s leadership, the appointment of Salesforce Chief Operating Officer Bret Taylor as the new chairman of the board, and his belief in the “ambition and potential” of the company’s employees.
He wrote, “I’m really sad … yet really happy, there aren’t many companies that get to this level,” adding that his move to step down “was my decision and I own it.”
not sure anyone has heard but,
I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl
— jack⚡️ (@jack) November 29, 2021
In an email to staff, Agrawal stated, “We recently updated our strategy to hit ambitious goals, and I believe that strategy to be bold and right, but our critical challenge is how we work to execute against it and deliver results.”
Even if investors were skeptical, the appointment of Agrawal, a 10-year Twitter veteran, signified a tacit endorsement by the board of a strategy the business had previously laid out to double annual revenue by 2023.
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