For the past 2 years, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had been under extreme pressure. As of today, some of that pressure has been relieved, but along with it, unfortunately, is his title as CEO. Jack must have Tweeted this during the weekend. Such a simple yet cryptic Tweet definitely held with it a more profound meaning. Today, Jack Dorsey has officially resigned and stepped down as CEO of Twitter, passing the reins to current CTO Parag Agrawal.

Jack’s sudden resignation may come as a surprise, considering that he had seemingly been fighting to hold onto his position despite the mounting pressures from an activist investor group that had motioned for his removal due to their critique of his ‘questionable’ leadership.

Beginning Of The End

The recent turnout of events originated from Elliott Management Corp who, earlier last year, acquired more than $1 billion in Twitter shares in an attempt to levy more influence over the Twitter board in the hopes of hastening the process of ousting then-CEO Jack Dorsey, whom, as described by Elliott, “failed to capitalize on the app’s potential.”

Elliott’s main point of contention was that it would be better for Twitter in the long run if it was headed by a CEO who was solely focused on improving the company’s performance, which has fluctuated over the years. Dorsey, at the time, also happened to be CEO of rising payments provider Square, which had Elliott doubting his ability to provide the focus that they were looking for, given his dual commitments. Dorsey allegedly also planned to move to Africa, but the worsening conditions of the Corona outbreak had him reconsider. This only led to Elliott’s team further undermining his suitability for the role, disbelieving in his capacity to maximize Twitter’s full potential.

If you’ve noticed, since then, Twitter has profusely expanded its innovation, launching all sorts of initiatives, most of which are revenue-focused, which you can all take a gander at here. All that increased momentum is part of Twitter’s ambitious growth plan, which was no doubt spurred by none other than Elliott.

The plan also mentions Twitter doubling its revenue by 2023, and while it has been aggressive with augmentation and innovation since the announcement of these plans, its renewed momentum has, thus far, produced mainly so-so results, with a couple of new bets even failing to gain the necessary traction in order for Twitter to stay 100% on-track with its goals. In a way, this surge of sporadic experiments can be seen as Jack’s personal response to Elliott’s ultimatum, which had him mainly focus on trying to keep his position rather than effectively run a company. Whatever the reason, what we can all surmise is that Jack has simply seen enough.

Besides managing Square, Dorsey is also heavily involved in the crypto community and is known to be an avid supporter of Bitcoin, in particular it’s potential for democratizing payments and financial options, especially for underserved communities. In fact, a large portion of his African push would involve crypto-based projects that could essentially facilitate entirely new opportunities with regards to financial connection for remote regions.

The Wrap

The most logical conclusion to be drawn from this is that perhaps Jack is now moving to venture to more personal ambitions, veering away from the somewhat noisy business that is social media and onto more opportune pastures, such as the alternative use of tech for health and financial literacy. He did say back in 2018 that:

“We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers. We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough.”

At the very least, it’ll be very big shoes to fill for Parag. However, the former software engineer has been with the company for over a decade and, as mentioned by Dorsey himself, has been heavily involved with the platform’s major decisions as of late. Parag brings new ideas and a new mindset to the table, allowing him a chance to leave his mark in history as possibly being the future of Twitter. We’ll have to wait and see what Parag does for the platform once he assumes the new mantle of CEO, and Jack officially steps down come the new-year.

Jack’s resignation definitely spells an end of an era for Twitter, as the man who posted the very first Tweet now joins and completes all four of Twitter’s co-founders having moved on from the company. Best of luck to you Jack on your new adventures, and best of luck to Twitter as it heads into a new horizon.

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Sources

https://bit.ly/3xBVo8G