Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey will step down as CEO of the social media platform and Parag Agrawal is all set to succeed him. The company's board has unanimously appointed the company's chief technology officer Parag Agrawal as next Twitter CEO.
"I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. My trust in Parag as Twitter's CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational. I'm deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It's his time to lead," Dorsey said in a statement.
The resignation of Dorsey, who has been heading Twitter as its chief executive since 2015, will come into effect immediately. However, he will remain a member of the Board till around May 2022 to enable a smooth transition.
On Sunday, Dorsey sent the tweet “I love Twitter."
Last year, the company came to an agreement with two of those activist investors that kept Dorsey in the top job and gave a seat on the company board to Elliott Management Corp., which owned about 4% of Twitter's stock, and another to Silver Lake.
Elliott Management, a Twitter shareholder, had attempted to replace Jack Dorsey as CEO in 2020 before reaching an agreement with the company's management
The social media giant was cofounded by Dorsey in 2006. Dorsey is also the top executive at Square, a financial payments company that he founded, and some big investors have openly questioned whether he can be effective leading both.
He later went on to become one of the topmost technology entrepreneurs. Dorsey has been taking an increasing interest in cryptocurrencies recently.
Meanwhile, shares of Twitter are surging on a report that co-founder Jack Dorsey will step down as the company’s chief executive.
Twitter’s stock, which has consistently underperformed the market, jumped more than 10% at the opening bell Monday. Twitter Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press reported Monday.
Twitter has faced some criticism from politicians recently. Former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter, with Dorsey defending the move, saying the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Trump’s tweets after the event resulted in a risk to public safety and created an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” for the company. Trump sued the company, along with Facebook and YouTube, in July for alleged censorship.
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