A few hours ago, Twitter (TWTR) Co-Founder and current CEO of payments company Square Jack Dorsey took to his creation to announce some big news: He is officially becoming the permanent Twitter CEO once again.
The move isn’t entirely unexpected — early TWTR investors like Chris Sacca have been clamoring for Dorsey to be named chief executive for months, as the company searched for someone to replace Dick Costolo.
Plus, Re/code kinda ruined the surprise last Wednesday when it reported the board had made up its mind and Dorsey was their choice.
The Medium Is the Message
Dorsey aptly took to Twitter to announce his appointment as TWTR CEO. In a series of tweets, he announced the news…
We are naming @adambain COO of Twitter, we’re working to change the composition of our Board, and I will serve as CEO of Twitter and Square! — Jack (@jack) October 5, 2015
Discussed TWTR’s purpose…
Twitter stands for freedom of expression. We stand for speaking truth to power. And we stand for empowering dialogue.
— Jack (@jack) October 5, 2015
Bragged on it a little…
Twitter is the most powerful communications tool of our time. It shows everything the world is saying rn…10-15 minutes before anything else.
— Jack (@jack) October 5, 2015
Promised investors that work was being done…
We’re working hard at Twitter to focus our roadmap on a few things we can make really great. And we’re strengthening our team along the way.
— Jack (@jack) October 5, 2015
And said broadly what that work would be…
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!
— Jack (@jack) October 5, 2015
Shares of TWTR stock, which went up initially upon the Re/code story last week but have fluctuated since then in absence of the official announcement, were up more than 2% in early trading.
Quite a Bit to Do
Dorsey has his work cut out for him as the Twitter CEO, that’s for sure. And with Square prepping for an IPO, I’m sure he’ll find himself with quite a lot to accomplish on that front, too.
Perhaps the most important thing he needs to do for TWTR stockholders to really start loving him is turn the company profitable. On a GAAP basis, the company lost $577 million last year and $645 million the year before.
Diehard TWTR bulls will tell you that as Twitter shares hover around their IPO price, the company remains a prime buyout target for someone like Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL), which, they argue, could use a legitimate social media platform.
Personally, I doubt GOOG wants to drop $18 billion on a slow-growing social media platform struggling to monetize.
Dorsey, to be sure, is the only thing that can catalyze a TWTR turnaround.
As of this writing, John Divine did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter at @divinebizkid or email him at editor@investorplace.com.
