Among much criticism of the platform, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended the current leadership at Twitter this week.
Key Details
- On Tuesday, Dorsey responded to a comment saying that should buy back Twitter by replying, “It’s in good hands.”
- The comment comes just two months after criticizing owner Elon Musk, saying he “should have walked away” and was not the right person to fix the social-media platform.
- Dorsey served as the CEO of Twitter from October 2015 to November 2021, leaving to become the co-founder of upstart Twitter rival Bluesky.
- He still retains a 2.4% ownership stake in Twitter following the Elon Musk purchase, Business Insider reports.
Why It’s Important
Jack Dorsey was a major player in the effort to convince Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to purchase Twitter last year. Early in 2022, Musk openly began discussing purchasing the social-media app. Behind the scenes, Dorsey stood by the idea and encouraged stakeholders to agree to Musk’s terms, resulting in the $44-billion purchase in late October.
As we previously reported, Dorsey was one of multiple prominent investors who stood behind and assisted Musk in his decision to purchase Twitter.
The purchase was met with severe media backlash and scrutiny in the months that followed. Musk facilitated mass firings, dropped advertising revenue, and turned verification into a subscription service. Subsequently, Twitter lost half of its value as a company and continues to struggle with advertising revenue and profitability.
However, Dorsey noted last month that Twitter was moving in the wrong direction prior to the purchase and would not have survived in its current form as a publicly-traded company.
Musk continues to forge ahead with a new vision for the company. He’s already announced his vision for implementing financial and video streaming features into the app that would make it a rival to services like PayPal and YouTube. He also hired former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO, allowing him to step into a hands-off leadership role and focus on his other companies.