Dorsey announced today that he will step down as CEO of Twitter. Twitter’s current CTO, Parag Agarwal, will take over the role of CEO starting today.
not sure anyone has heard but,
I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl
— jack (@jack) November 29, 2021
Dorsey’s resignation is surprising, considering he had seemingly been fighting to hold on to his position amid rising pressure from an activist investor group that had previously called for his removal due to questions over his leadership.
Jack Dorsey steps down: Elliot vs Dorsey
In early 2018, Elliott Management acquired more than $1 billion in Twitter shares in a move designed to gain more power on the Twitter board, in a broader push to oust CEO Jack Dorsey, whom they saw as failing to capitalize on the app’s potential.
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak, Elliott’s main point of contention was that Twitter would be better served if it had a CEO solely focused on improving the company’s performance, which has fluctuated over the last few years. Dorsey, who is also the CEO of rising payments provider Square, may not be able to provide the required focus, given his dual commitments, and with Dorsey also, at that stage (just before the COVID outbreak), planning a move to Africa, Elliott’s team had raised serious concerns over his suitability for the role, and his capacity to maximize the potential of the social app.
Since that time, Twitter has significantly upped its innovation momentum, launching various revenue-focused tools, including Super Follows, ticketed Spaces, on-profile tipping, professional profiles, and an initial move into eCommerce via shopping tweets and sections.
The increased momentum is part of Twitter’s ambitious growth plan, seemingly spurned by the Elliott Management push, which the company announced back in February.
So what comes next for Twitter?
The new CEO, who started as a software engineer at Twitter, will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company. Agrawal is likely to bring with him a different mindset, and focus, from Dorsey, which could see Twitter abandon some projects and double-down on others, in line with its pre-established targets.
So Twitter is ending an era. Jack, who tweeted the first-ever tweet, will remain on the board till early next year, then he’ll be gone, meaning that all four of Twitter’s founders will have moved on from the company.
just setting up my twttr
— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006
In many ways, that’s significant and it’ll be interesting to see how that affects the future of the platform.
