After much speculation, Twitter officially announced today that interim CEO Jack Dorsey, who cofounded Twitter and served as CEO from 2007 to 2008, has dropped the “interim” and assumed the role of CEO.
Adam Bain, who was Twitter’s president of global revenue and partnerships at Twitter, will become the COO. Bain was another candidate for the role of CEO.
Adam Bain is now Twitter's Chief Operating Officer (Click Image To Enlarge)
Dick Costolo, former CEO and board member, has also stepped down from the board. Dorsey will still serve as a member of the board, but is no longer Chairman. In a Tweet, Dorsey said they were “working to change the composition of the board.”
According to the SEC document detailing the changes,
“Mr. Dorsey was selected to serve on the Board because of the perspective and experience he brings as one of Twitter’s founders and as one of Twitter’s largest stockholders, as well as his extensive experience with technology companies.”
Dorsey will not be receiving any direct compensation for his role as CEO, per the SEC document.
Nate Elliott, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research, in response to this morning's news, says.
"Now that Twitter's CEO drama is out of the way, the company can get back to doing its job: Building products people want to use. The key phrase there is 'building products' - something Twitter hasn't done nearly enough of."
Elliott compares Twitter to Facebook, noting that the reason the latter continues to grow is partly due to the new features and experiences it continues to offer, attracting an ever-larger audience. He says.
"Twitter is stagnating because its product looks almost exactly like it did when it launched ten years ago."
Forrester Research analyst Erna Alfred Liousas adds.
"It's time for Twitter to build and innovate. Not every new idea launched will succeed - but if it launches enough new features, some will surely find a wider audience. And a wider audience is exactly what Twitter needs."
Dorsey said in an investor call this morning.
“It’s our goal to exceed the expectations the world has for us. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Referring to a product road map for 2016 in the call, Dorsey referred to Project Lightning, which will provide users with curated content centered around specific events, embedded across the Web and within other apps.
Dorsey is also the CEO of Square, a mobile payment-processing company; he has no plans to step down from that role. Square is reportedly gearing up for an IPO this year.
Some think that Dorsey splitting his time between the roles may lead to ineffective leadership for both companies. Others have compared the move to Steve Jobs, who ran Apple and Pixar at the same time.
Dorsey announced he was taking the helm as full-time CEO of Twitter in a series of tweets:
Click Image To Visit Jack's Twitter page
COMMENTARY: Twitter’s search committee originally said it would consider only candidates who could make a “full-time commitment” to the company. As CEO of Square, Dorsey seemed to be disqualified, assuming he also remained head of the mobile payments upstart. And yet some investors, like Chris Sacca and Keith Rabois, have since said publicly that they believe Dorsey has—and can—run both Square and Twitter effectively at the same time. sey, previously fired from Twitter, as the full-time CEO at Twitter.
RE/CODE reported correctly on Wednesday, September 30 that Jack Dorsey would become Twitter's permanent CEO and still run Square through its IPO:
"Jack is apparently back — for good this time.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who has been serving as interim CEO for the past three months, is expected to be named the company’s new permanent CEO as early as tomorrow, although that timeframe may change, according to sources. Dorsey will apparently continue to run Square, the payments company he founded where he’s also CEO."
Here's what Business Insider had to say about this decision.
"Square, which will go through a roadshow (for IPO), then hit the markets, also needs a full-time CEO to guide it through its initial stages as a public company.
For this reason, the timing isn't great for Dorsey to be Twitter CEO right now.
Despite this, Dorsey is the best, if not only, choice to lead Twitter.
Twitter needs a product-oriented CEO that has the moral authority to tweak the product to make it appeal to the billions of people that don't use Twitter.
Twitter needs an insider who already knows the company and won't need to waste a year, or more, figuring out who does what and who should be retained, or canned.
Dorsey checks both of those boxes."
Brian Blau, an analyst who covers the major social media companies for Gartner, says.
"Landing Jack Dorsey as the permanent CEO is the best choice the company can make right now. The company has been struggling and without a CEO in place... [it] would create even more disruption when Twitter needs the opposite and should be focusing on how they will transform the product and business."
Here's what Mashable had to say about Jack Dorsey's appointment as permanent CEO at Twitter:
"The appointment ends months of scrutiny and pressure from prominent investors and analysts for Twitter to move more swiftly in deciding on a chief executive who can provide stability and product leadership. Now he must accomplish what his predecessor Costolo could not: re-ignite Twitter's stalled user growth without alienating longtime users, or else convince Wall Street why Twitter warrants a $20 billion valuation if it can't hit the mainstream.
The stakes could not be higher for Twitter. Its stock has been stuck in the gutter for months, with rampant speculation that its best hope is to be acquired. Facebook is attacking Twitter's core on all sides with new features to track and broadcast news in real-time. And there is an army of unicorns (billion-dollar startups) ready and eager to snatch up talented but concerned Twitter employees."
New York Magazine had some interesting things to say about Jack Dorsey's ability to manage two companies simultaneously and the decision to take Square public:
"Dorsey has been aggressive — but not necessarily successful — in both roles. Square has rolled out some innovative features, but it’s a minnow in shark-infested waters, competing with Google Wallet and PayPal, which is now taking a bite out of Square’s mobile card reader market. Dorsey at the helm of both companies may hint at a future moments of symbiosis between the two. For instance, Twitter recently unveiled an option to donate directly to a political candidate on the platform, using Square to process the contributions.
Overall, both companies have suffered over the past year. Square has yet to find a profitable business model. And despite rumors that the company was attempting to sell itself off during this downturn, Dorsey recently filed documents for a public offering, a strategy that has drawn plenty of skepticism.
Twitter's stock has been steadily dropping, down a third this year and now standing below its IPO price. But Dorsey seems to see it as a buying opportunity: He recently purchased another $875,000-worth of Twitter stock. He made the move public in the most @Jack way possible, simply tweeting a link to the SEC purchasing document. One of Twitter's main goals is to get new users — many who are intimidated by the immensity of content produced on the website — to become devoted tweeters. It's something the company hasn't had too much luck with so far."
As for myself, I remain somewhat ambivalent about the decision to hire Jack Dorsey as the permanent CEO at Twitter. I agree with the comments made by New York Magazine. Dorsey was fired before. How much has Jack Dorsey changed since he was fired from Twitter? Will anything really change? Running two companies simutaneously would be an issue with me. Steve Jobs did it, Jack Dorsey is no Steve Jobs. Jobs completely re-invented Apple shortly after his return. He even forged an alliance with Microsoft, his "Big Brother" nemesis, and allowed Microsoft to invest $100 million in Apple to keep them afloat.
The move to appoint Adam Bain as Chief Operating Officer, is a good strategic move. Jack will need an insider to manage Twitter's operations, allowing him the time to focus on making Twitter a better product for existing and new users.
Jack Dorsey is obviously familiar with the situation at Twitter, but I wonder if he has the ability to move quickly and decisively to make the needed changes to the site that will make Twitter more appealing, interesting and engaging, and help keep users glued to the site, and attract new users as well.
In response to the above criticism, Dorsey tweeted on Monday:
“My focus is to build teams that move fast, and learn faster. We're working hard at Twitter to focus our roadmap on a few things we can make really great. Our work forward is to make Twitter easy to understand by anyone in the world, and give more utility to the people who love to use it daily!”
Dorsey, however, has yet to prove himself worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Jobs. Unlike Apple -- or Facebook under Mark Zuckerberg -- Twitter and Square, where he is also CEO, remain relatively niche services with highly uncertain futures.
If I were Jack, I would be polling users for ideas and determining why the other 600 million registered users, who don't use it at all, don't like about Twitter. I would be talking to some of the experts and thought leaders in the field of social media to get their opinions about Twitter.
Courtesy of an article dated October 5, 2015 appearing in MediaPost Mobile Marketing Daily, an article dated October 5, 2015 appearing in Mashable, an article dated October 5, 2015 appearing in Business Insider, and courtesy of an article dated September 30, 2015 in RE/CODE, and courtesy of an article dated October 5, 2015 appearing in MediaPost Mobile Marketing Daily MoBlog, and an article dated September 30, 2015 appearing in New York Magazine
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