Twitter has announced that chief executive officer Dick Costolo is stepping down on 1 July of this year. He will still continue to serve on Twitter’s Board of Directors.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chairman of the board, will serve as interim CEO while the board conducts a search for a permanent replacement.
Costolo said in a statement: “I am tremendously proud of the Twitter team and all that the team has accomplished together during my six years with the Company. There is no one better than Jack Dorsey to lead Twitter during this transition. He has a profound understanding of the product and Twitter’s mission in the world as well as a great relationship with Twitter’s leadership team.”
Dorsey will continue to serve as CEO of Square, the payments and financial services company he co-founded in 2009.
The markets reacted positively with 8% increase, It was a reflection of the uneasy feelings from investors towards a man who fell under their increased and ultimately poisonous scrutiny.
For Twitter’s investors the concern was less about user numbers than the growth and aggressiveness of the company’s online advertising. While Costolo was popular with many staffers for bringing structure and co-ordination to a chaotic young company, and took it to a market capitalisation of $23.4bn, he also oversaw the process of risk and uncertainty in pushing towards a brand new space.
