Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Faces Ousting Attempt By Shareholder

Tom Jowitt,
ISIS

Activist shareholder Elliott Management has reportedly taken a sizeable stake in Twitter and is seeking Jack Dorsey’s removal

The future of Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey is in question after it emerged that an activist shareholder group has taken a “sizeable stake” in the micro-blogging platform.

According to Bloomberg, Elliott Management now “plans to push for changes at the social media company, including replacing Dorsey”.

The Guardian newspaper noted that Elliott Management was founded by billionaire Paul Singer, who is a major Republican party donor.

Jack_Dorsey
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey

Political move?

Twitter of course in October 2019 decided to ban all political adverts around the world.

President Donald Trump communicates with the general public largely through Twitter.

And in April 2019, CEO Jack Dorsey actually had a face to face meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office.

That meeting was potentially awkward for both parties, as President Trump had just criticised the platform, claiming it was discriminating against him and other republicans after the number of his followers fluctuated.

And a week before that meeting in the White House, Jack Dorsey had said he wanted to move “away from outrage and mob behaviour and towards productive, healthy conversation” on the platform.

The same platform that President Trump repeatedly uses to attack and criticise his opponents.

Africa desire

Dorsey, it should be remembered, is also chief executive of Square, an online payment company.

And in November, he announced a plan to live and work in Africa for part (up to half) of each year. Dorsey made the commitment after finishing a tour of Africa.

And it is these two reasons that are being cited in the media as the motivations for Singer’s desire to push Dorsey out.

Dorsey had co-founded Twitter in 2006, but he had left the micro-blogging platform in 2008 (amid complaints he was too focused on other activities such as Yoga) to set up mobile payments firm Square.

However Dorsey returned to the Twitter fold in 2011 when Dick Costolo took over.

In 2015 Dorsey was reappointed as CEO of the company he co-founded, when former CEO  Costolo stood down in July 2015.

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