While things are still on hold for Elon Musk’s takeover push, we do have another reminder that Twitter’s leadership team will never be the same, regardless of what comes next. Now former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey announced that he’s leaving the Twitter board, effective immediately.
Dorsey’s full exit removes another big chunk of experience from the company. Over the past two weeks, Dorsey’s exit now tallies Twitter’s losses to:
Consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour, who’d worked at Twitter for four years.
Head of revenue product Bruce Falck (5 years).
Ilya Brown, a VP of product management (6 years).
Katrina Lane, VP of Twitter Service (1 year).
Max Schmeiser, head of data science (2 years).
All Offboard!
That being said, Dorsey’s move isn’t too surprising at all. Back in November, when Dorsey announced that he’d be stepping down as the company’s CEO, he also mentioned that he’d be staying on Twitter’s board till around ‘May-ish’ to help then-incoming CEO Parag Agrawal and would-be Twitter board chair Bret Taylor with their respective transitions. Back then, Dorsey didn’t predict the chaos now happening amidst a hostile takeover. Dorsey has decided to proceed with his original plan and step away from the platform he helped build.
This would effectively clear a path for a new Twitter era under the rule of Elon Musk, who has vowed to bring about ‘significant changes’ to how Twitter operates. However, Musk seems to be currently more preoccupied with ‘population decline’ and political conspiracies rather than ensuring the full completion of his deal.
On the 13th of May, Musk announced that his takeover was effectively ‘on hold’ pending more Data from Twitter on its fake profile count, which it currently pegs at 5% of all active users. Many users have since shared bits of evidence that suggest that this measure is inaccurate. Twitter itself has maintained that there is no ‘on hold’ in the current takeover process and that it anticipates the near-closing of the deal. On the other hand, Musk says that he’s not going to pay full price for something that’s not what he believed he was purchasing.
Then again, Musk also waived doing detailed due diligence on Twitter’s business to fast-forward his deal, meaning that he may be tied to the purchase anyway, regardless of what Twitter or anybody else may find. For his part, Dorsey has been a strong advocate for Musk and his interest in Twitter, noting several times that he believes Musk is the best option to ‘save’ the company. Now, Dorsey’s stepping back to allow this to happen, marking the last of the four founders in their guidance of the platform. Twitter is now completely in Musk’s hands.
The Wrap
It might actually be a good thing for Twitter, which has since drifted far from its founding concepts. Perhaps a complete overhaul is what’s needed to reach the next stage of connection. Still, a lot of Twitter’s veteran leadership is already out the door, with current CEO Parag Agrawal also on the chopping block, as per Musk’s statements.
Right now, Twitter’s future remains steadily within the gray area, with no apparent direction as to whether it’ll actually grow under Musk’s leadership or tank hard. He’ll certainly have a tougher time building Twitter up without the advice of experienced voices backing him up, then again, it might also be easier for him to establish new pillars seeing as how Twitter will be freed from the limitations of its past. One thing is for certain, big changes are on the way.
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