Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, announced this Monday (29) that he will leave the company after 16 years. Parag Agrawal, head of technology for the company, takes over.
More than a year ago, investors questioned the management of the businessman, who also heads Square, his payments company. At around 1 pm, after the news was released, the company’s shares rose 4.4%, well above the market average.
In a letter posted on his social network profile, Dorsey lists three reasons that made him take this decision at this time.
The first is that Parag went through a rigorous process to be chosen as the new president. “He’s been my choice for a while given how deeply he understands the company and its needs,” he wrote.
The second is that Bret Taylor has agreed to be Twitter’s board of directors, which Dorsey says is all the board needs right now.
The third, according to the co-founder, are the users, who would benefit from the changes. “All of you have the potential to change the course of the company for the better. I believe it with all my heart.”
Dorsey is under pressure in office and, early last year, had to publicly defend that he was capable of running Twitter and Square at the same time.
At the time, the activist fund Elliot Management, owned by billionaire Paul Singer, a Republican Party supporter, bought $1 billion in the company. The fund, which then named four members to the board, advocated replacing the presidency over corporate governance concerns.
Dorsey was named president of Twitter in 2015 after being away from the post. At the time, the social network’s executive board considered that it would only accept a candidate who could do the job full-time.
In the quarter ended in October, the company’s revenue rose 37%, to US$ 1.28 billion (R$ 7.1 billion). In the period, the net loss was US$ 537 million (R$ 2.9 billion).
With 211 million daily monetizable active users — an internal metric that counts the number of connected users the platform shows advertising to — the group is deepening its efforts in areas such as payments and e-commerce.
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