Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder and interim CEO, will likely be named permanent CEO very soon.
That’s according to sources quoted by Re/code, who say that the announcement could come as soon as Thursday. This does not mean that Dorsey will be giving up his position as CEO of Square – Dorsey will run both companies.
Dorsey was named interim Twitter CEO in June when Dick Costolo stepped down. Early reports indicated that the company’s Board and investors only wanted Dorsey as an interim replacement – unless he decided to resign from Square, another company he founded.
The Board even put out a press release at the time, saying,
“The Committee will only consider candidates for recommendation to the full Board who are in a position to make a full-time commitment to Twitter. The search is proceeding with a sense of urgency but the Committee will take the time necessary to find the right CEO to lead the next phase of Twitter’s growth.”
In other words, you can’t do both, Jack.
But as the weeks flew by and Twitter still didn’t have a replacement for Costolo, investors began to warm to the idea of Dorsey running both companies. The New York Times ran a piece in which it quoted a major Twitter investor who said “after watching Jack execute on his vision at Square, and more recently at Twitter as CEO, we are highly confident in Jack’s ability to serve as C.E.O. of both companies.”
If Dorsey is the guy, he has a lot of work to do. Twitter’s user growth is stagnant.
“Our Q2 results show good progress in monetization, but we are not satisfied with our growth in audience,” said Dorsey in July. “In order to realize Twitter’s full potential, we must improve in three key areas: ensure more disciplined execution, simplify our service to deliver Twitter’s value faster, and better communicate that value.”
And Twitter stock is hurting – and has been for some time. It is up about 3% today on the report of Dorsey staying on as permanent, however.