Twitter CEO Steps Down

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has resigned from the firm after a 16-year run. He was replaced by Parag Agrawal, the former CTO. The change is effective immediately.

“Not sure anyone has heard but, I resigned from Twitter,” Mr. Dorsey tweeted yesterday. “My one wish is for Twitter to be the most transparent company in the world,” he added in his official resignation letter.

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As for the “why” of this change, Mr. Dorsey cited the problems with a tech company being “founder-led,” which he calls a “single point of failure.” But he feels that now is the right time for three reasons: his “bone deep” (ugh) trust in Mr. Agrawal, the ascendancy of Bret Taylor to Twitter’s board of directors, and the “ambition and potential” of the Twitter team. Right, he literally doesn’t explain why.

Twitter has been criticized by investors for not growing its userbase or revenues as successfully as bigger competitors like Facebook. And since Mr. Dorsey is so closely aligned with the Twitter brand, I assume part of the plan is to grow the company more now that he’s gone.

Mr. Dorsey will stay on Twitter’s board until May, at which point he will step down and “give Parag the space he needs to lead.”

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Conversation 19 comments

  • j5

    Premium Member
    30 November, 2021 - 9:25 am

    <p>Maybe we’ll get that edit button now. </p>

    • lezmaka

      Premium Member
      30 November, 2021 - 11:17 am

      <p>Only if you pay $5/month</p>

    • fourbadcats

      Premium Member
      30 November, 2021 - 11:43 am

      <p>Edit btn would be quite bad… revisionist history anyone?</p>

      • darkgrayknight

        Premium Member
        30 November, 2021 - 12:00 pm

        <p>Being able to edit within 5 minutes of posting would be the right way to add edit. Once 5 minutes have passed, you can’t edit any more.</p>

      • mattbg

        Premium Member
        30 November, 2021 - 3:36 pm

        <p><br></p>

      • mattbg

        Premium Member
        30 November, 2021 - 3:36 pm

        <p>On Twitter, or in the Thurrott.com comments section? :)</p>

  • jecouch66

    Premium Member
    30 November, 2021 - 9:29 am

    <p>Maybe it will go under and help the world move to more civil discourse. </p><p><br></p><p>Ha ha ha, I slay me.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      30 November, 2021 - 10:18 am

      <p>I have very civil discourse with a lot of people and very rarely see any bile.</p>

      • christianwilson

        Premium Member
        30 November, 2021 - 10:58 am

        <p>Same here. It really depends on the topics you follow, who you follow, and who you interact with. </p>

    • mattbg

      Premium Member
      30 November, 2021 - 3:33 pm

      <p><br></p>

    • mattbg

      Premium Member
      30 November, 2021 - 3:35 pm

      <p>I know Twitter has this reputation, but for whatever reason I find a higher signal-to-noise ratio on Twitter than I do on, say, Facebook.</p><p><br></p><p>I don’t think I’ve ever seen a constructive comments thread on Facebook before, but they are plentiful on Twitter in the right places.</p><p><br></p><p>It does depend on who you are following, though… anything overtly political will be the same almost anywhere.</p>

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    30 November, 2021 - 10:29 am

    <p>He probably doesn’t want to deal with all the coming government legislation and he probably wants to spend more time with his money.</p>

  • bats

    30 November, 2021 - 10:53 am

    <p>Hopefully, the new guy will be a better, fair, and (truly) honest CEO than Dorsey. When a communication platform, such as Twitter, obviously goes against it’s own mission statement, to further and promote a political bias, it becomes a hypocrite-machine. I am not optimistic with <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Agrawal, but I am hopeful.</span></p>

    • Rob_Wade

      30 November, 2021 - 2:06 pm

      <p>Sadly, Agrawal has been quoted as saying "our role is not to be bound by the first amendment". That pretty much sums up Twitter, Facebook and others.</p>

      • jgraebner

        Premium Member
        30 November, 2021 - 10:17 pm

        <p>Since the First Amendment in no way restricts editorial decisions by private corporations, I would imagine that will remain the policy under the new CEO.</p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    30 November, 2021 - 10:54 am

    <p>Yes, why after all these years of going to congress to testify wouldn’t he say no mass and just retire and focus on something that won’t make him testify to those bozos in Washington.</p>

  • JH_Radio

    Premium Member
    30 November, 2021 - 3:23 pm

    <p>I wish that they hadn’t baught scrole.</p><p>I liked reading The Verge on scrole thru verge.com</p><p>I’m not paying $5 to twitter for that. </p><p>Its not like I read articles in twitter anyways.</p><p><br></p>

  • crunchyfrog

    30 November, 2021 - 10:03 pm

    <p>Social media is a poison to society for the most part. It started out, like many things, as a good idea. It eventually became corporatized and the ugly complicated mess it has become today.</p>

  • nine54

    Premium Member
    01 December, 2021 - 8:31 am

    <p>Maybe Elliott said it’s time to pick, Twitter or Square. They openly questioned the effectiveness of Dorsey splitting time between Twitter or Square and pushed for a dedicated CEO. Elliott ultimately was persuaded to abandon that idea; apparently employees are loyal to Dorsey, and the company feared significant attrition. But, perhaps Dorsey’s renewed tenure was not without a timestamp.</p><p><br></p><p>I understand loyalty to, or affinity for, certain leaders, but this feels like cult of personality territory, which seems prevalent among tech companies. Does this lead to corporate cultures that are self-righteous and disconnected with Main St.? Perhaps. At the very least, it might explain why twenty-something year-old employees feel entitled and empowered to act as curators of truth and "misinformation." </p>

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