Twitter has officially entered the post-Dorsey age: its founder and two-time CEO’s board term expired Wednesday, marking the first time the social media company hasn’t had him around in some capacity.
Jack Dorsey announced his resignation as Twitter chief exec in November 2021, and passed the baton to Parag Agrawal while remaining on the board. Now that board term has ended, and Dorsey has stepped down as expected. Agrawal has taken Dorsey’s board seat; Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor has assumed the role of Twitter’s board chair.
In his resignation announcement, Dorsey – who co-founded and is CEO of Block (formerly Square) – said having founders leading the companies they created can be severely limiting for an organization and can serve as a single point of failure. “I believe it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction,” Dorsey said. He didn’t respond to a request for further comment today.
Reasoning aside, Dorsey’s complete departure is conveniently timed, as Tesla CEO – and reported friend of Jack – Elon Musk is heading toward a deal to purchase the platform and take it private. Dorsey has expressed support for Musk’s takeover, and in an SEC document filed in early May, Musk mentioned Dorsey by name as someone he was in talks with to add equity to the deal.
Musk’s Tesla stock margin loans recently lapsed, leaving him with significant funding to make up to secure the deal, if he isn’t thinking of walking away entirely. At a meeting yesterday, shareholders voted to boot pro-Musk Egon Durban from Twitter’s board; he has been on the panel since 2020.
That ouster may not be related to his relationship with Musk nor a connection to the takeover bid, though: other major Twitter investors reportedly expressed concern Durban sat on too many corporate boards. A Twitter spokesperson told The Financial Times the vote to remove Durban was non-binding, though Durban did submit a resignation letter that a governance committee will decide whether to accept.
When asked if Twitter had anything to add about Dorsey’s departure from the board, the company declined. “As we shared back in November, Jack would be leaving the board when ‘his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders.’ This was also detailed in our proxy filed on April 12,” the spokesperson said.
Along with not having anything to add on Dorsey’s departure, Twitter also told us it had nothing to say about “our pending acquisition.” ®
source: The Register
