(3 minutes read)
· Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey will stay as chief executive
· Recently, Dorsey has grabbed headlines announcing that he
would stay in different countries in Africa to spread culture of
digital technology there
Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey will stay as chief executive. An agreement
to this effect has reached with Elliot Management, which picked up
stakes of the company recently. Elliott’s plan to push out the social
media company’s chief had become public and www.trendsnafrica.com had
carried news on that subject recently. As a result of the compromise
formula worked out, Elliott’s head of U.S. activism, Jesse Cohn, and
private equity firm Silver Lake’s co-chief executive officer Egon
Durban, will join the social media site’s board immediately. Later,
the company will appoint a third new director, which many feel would
happen soon. As a part of the deal worked out, Silver Lake will invest
US$1 billion in Twitter.
The agreement reached would give Dorsey enough time to reflect on the
future plans of the company and to formulate long-term plans to
overcome the present financial difficulties being faced by the
company. For Elliot and Silver Lake, it gives a reprieve since they
need not have to hunt for a replacement immediately. Since they have
already inducted two people on the board and is likely to bring in one
more director very soon, they may have more control on the board’s
decision. Many feel that there would be an uneasy calmness among the
two warring groups henceforth, which may adversely affect the
functioning of the company. Dorsey, 43, a reputed technocrat owns
only about 2% of the company and had become vulnerable to a challenge
from an activist investor such as Elliott. Dorsey also runs Square
Inc, a mobile payments company he co-founded.
Recently, Dorsey has grabbed headlines announcing that he would stay
in different countries in Africa to spread the culture of digital
technology there. Upon Elliot questioning his commitment to Twitter,
he changed his mind and announced that he had postponed the sojourn in
Africa to a future date.
