Jack Dorsey will cease to be the CEO of Twitter

The co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, will cease to be CEO of the social media platform, as announced by msmo through a letter and the company with a statement on Monday.

Amid the rumors of the resignation, Twitter shares rose more than 10% at the open, before trading was halted due to high volatility awaiting news.

“I’ve decided it’s time to go.” He announced in a letter that he made public after sending it to the company’s employees. “It was difficult, of course. I am really sad, and yet really happy. I know that we will show that it was the right way”.

The businessman announced that he will be replaced in the position by the current director of technology of the company, Parag Agrawal, while Bret Taylor will serve as Chairman of the Board.

“I decided to leave Twitter because I think the firm is ready to cut the cord with its founders,” Dorsey explained in a statement marking the end of an era.

Dorsey is also the CEO of Square, a financial payments company that he founded.

The founder of Elliot Management, a Twitter shareholder company, Paul Singer, had previously questioned the current Director of Twitter about whether he should run two public companies simultaneously, so in 2020 he asked him to resign as CEO of one of the two companies.

Finally, last year an agreement had been reached. Faced with this request for resignation and pressure from the company, Dorsey defended himself by giving Elliott and his ally, the acquisition company Silver Lake Partners, positions on the Twitter board.

Jack Dorsey

Twitter was caught up in the heated political environment leading up to the 2020 election. Former President Donald Trump was ousted from Twitter, and Dorsey defended the move, saying the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and Trump’s tweets following the event posed a risk to public safety and created an “extraordinary and unsustainable circumstance” for the company.

Trump sued the company, along with Facebook and YouTube, in July for alleged censorship.

The early days of Twitter began with a tweet sent by Dorsey on March 21, 2006 that said “just setting up my twttr”. The social network went through a period of strong growth during its inception, but as growth slowed the San Francisco company began to tweak its format in an attempt to make it easier and more attractive to use.

Dorsey initially became CEO of Twitter in 2007, but was forced to step down the following year. He returned to office in 2015.