Jack Dorsey has been named Twitter’s newest chief executive.
A confluence of tweetstorms revealed the news early this morning. Dorsey tweeted that he would become the company’s full-time chief executive while remaining in the same role at Square; Dick Costolo congratulated the team and announced that he will be stepping down from Twitter’s board; and a board member said that the search for a chief executive ended with a unanimous vote for Dorsey to come back.
That might over-simplify the company’s hunt for its new leader. It took them 96 days to replace Costolo as Twitter’s chief executive — a move which board member Chris Sacca criticized after Volkswagen replaced its chief executive in just a week. The board was reportedly worried about Dorsey leading Twitter while continuing to work at Square because it wanted someone to focus entirely on the social network.
There were probably other misgivings about bringing Dorsey back. As Fortune explained when reports emerged about him dropping “interim” from his title:
Dorsey’s focus on outside hobbies, including sewing and drawing classes, and his frequent party appearances annoyed his co-workers. His lack of communication to investors and apparent six-figure text message bills annoyed the board. He had frequent arguments with Williams, who had provided the initial funding for Twitter. Oh, and while he was in charge, there was no backup of Twitter’s database.
Dorsey’s experience at Square appears to have changed that. Now he’ll be able to lead the company he co-founded with the benefit of having led another company without being made a “passive chairman” and “silent” board member. And if recent news is anything to go by, being led by the same man could benefit both companies. The split attention that so worried Twitter’s board might actually be a good thing.
These rumblings should mean much to Twitter. “As I step off the board, two reminders: those banging pots and pans outside Twitter know the least about what’s going on inside Twitter,” Costolo tweeted this morning, “and @Twitter, there is only one narrative that matters and it’s the one you’ll create for the world.” I suspect a publicly-traded company’s image is a little more important than Costolo lets on, but it’s probably a welcome sentiment inside the company’s tumultuous headquarters.
Twitter board names Jack Dorsey as full-time CEO originally published by Gigaom, © copyright 2015.
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