Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of the social networking platform, with chief technical officer Parag Agrawal set to replace him.
Dorsey, 45, co-founded Twitter in 2006 alongside Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Noah Glass.
Dorsey had been balancing his role at the helm of Twitter with the top job at payment processing firm, Square Inc, a multi-billion dollar company which he also founded himself.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Dorsey said that it was “finally time to leave” and that Twitter was “ready to move on”.
Dorsey also spoke of his “deep” trust for his successor Agrawal, saying that it was “his time to lead”.
Parag Agrawal has been the top dog in Twitter’s technology department since 2017 having first joined the social media giant in 2011.
A source from inside Twitter told Reuters that stepping down would enable Dorsey to focus more closely on his role with Square and his philanthropy work, after he had come under pressure from some Twitter investors to step down last year in favour of a leader whose sole focus would be on the social networking site.
At the time, shareholders from Elliott Management Corp were concerned that Dorsey was not paying enough attention to his Twitter role, but he avoided being ousted after offering board positions to the firm and private equity partner, Silver Lake Partners.
Dorsey’s departure now comes as part of a wider reshuffle of the company’s board, with Bret Taylor, formerly of Google and Salesforce, being appointed Twitter’s new chairman.
Paying tribute to the departing Dorsey, Taylor said: “I want to thank Jack for his visionary leadership and unrelenting dedication to Twitter since its founding.
“Jack returned to Twitter and turned the company around at the most critical time. The progress since then has been nothing short of incredible.
“Jack has given the world something invaluable and we will continue to carry it forward.”
Reuters and CNBC reported as early as Monday that Dorsey could go as part of Twitter’s changing of the guard, citing anonymous sources close to the now former CEO.
As rumours of Dorsey’s departure leaked, Twitter’s share price jumped slightly before trading of shares on the stock exchange was temporarily suspended.
It is not the first time that Dorsey has left the social network, having stepped down in 2008 to establish Square, before re-joining in 2015 to halt a spell of stagnant growth and a share price slump.
Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons
