- Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) has added to the premarket gains it saw after the company confirmed chairman/co-founder Jack Dorsey will be its permanent CEO (while keeping the same job at Square), and named sales chief Adam Bain (previously viewed as a CEO candidate) its COO. (8-K filing)
- The company also stated ex-CEO Dick Costolo has resigned from the board (as expected), and disclosed on a conference call it plans to separate the chairman and CEO positions to "simplify the demands on [Dorsey's] time as well as to make sure we bring a fresh voice and new leadership to the board."
- Fellow co-founder and director Evan Williams defends the board's decision. "Jack has already demonstrated the ability to inspire the team and think boldly about the next phase of Twitter. His connection to its roots informs a depth of vision and authenticity of voice, which I’ve been excited to hear. We looked at many (many, many) other options ... I honestly didn’t think we’d land on Jack when we started unless he could step away from Square. But ultimately, we decided it was worth it."
- Dorsey on (where else?) Twitter: "My focus is to build teams that move fast, and learn faster. In the past 3 months we have increased our speed and urgency at both [Twitter and Square] ... Twitter is the most powerful communications tool of our time ... Our work forward is to make Twitter easy to understand by anyone in the world, and give more utility to the people who love to use it daily!"
- In other Twitter news, the San Francisco Business Times reports the company has cancelled plans to add ~100K sq. feet of office space at a building close to its HQ, possibly due to a hiring slowdown. Twitter currently occupies 750K sq. feet at its HQ.