Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has revealed he's 'choosing the company over my ego' and is stepping down from the $11billion company - but insists he has not been pushed out.
The 45-year-old posted his resignation letter on Monday, in which he explained he had 'worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders' before patting himself on the back by noting 'there aren't many founders that choose their company over ego.
'I know we'll prove this was the right move.'
Parag Agrawal, 45, was named the new CEO of the social media giant early on Monday, after serving as the company's chief technology officer since 2017.
Dorsey, 45, was the CEO of the social media giant when it was first founded in 2006, and oversaw its startup. He returned to the top job in 2015.
He has since faced criticism from top Republican lawmakers for stifling free speech on Twitter and banning former President Donald Trump from the social media site. There have also been calls for tighter legislation on what can be posted on social media sites, with some claiming the site spreads misinformation.
Many Republicans have celebrated his exit. Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted: 'Jack Dorsey is rumored to be stepping down as Twitter CEO. Great. He's been a disaster,' she tweeted.
'Hopefully someone who believes in free speech and our Constitution will take the reins and reinstate the tons of Americans unfairly banned.'
Jason Miller, CEO of GETTR, the free speech social media platform which fights cancel culture, said: 'Dorsey's strangling of free expression is why GETTR needs to exist, and for that I suppose we should all be grateful. Without the crushing oppression and virtue signaling of the Big Tech oligarchs, millions of people from around the world wouldn't be searching for a new social media home. Unlike Dorsey, GETTR is here to stay, and we will always protect the rights of people to speak their minds.'
There have been concerns about his time being divided between Twitter and payments company Square Inc., both multimillion dollar companies. He will remain CEO of that company.
During his tenure at Twitter, revenue for the social media giant has grown sluggishly, with the New York Times reporting that a stock in the company is now worth roughly the same as it was a year ago.
As the new CEO, Agrawal will now have incredibly tough targets to meet, after Twitter announced earlier this year it aims to double its annual revenue by 2023 and 315 million monetizable daily active users.
Dorsey first became the CEO of Twitter when it was founded in 2006. In an email to employees posted to his Twitter on Monday, he said he wanted the company to move beyond its founders
Dorsey announced his resignation with a screengrab of an email he sent to employees
Dorsey was previously pushed out of his leadership position in the company in 2008 amid claims he kept leaving work early to enjoy other pursuits like yoga and fashion design, and chose improvements to the site over revenue.
In March 2011, Dorsey was named executive chairman, and when new CEO Dick Costolo announced his resignation in June 2015, Dorsey returned.
He will now remain on Twitter's board of directors through his current term, which runs through 2022, but will step aside as chairman, with current board member Bret Taylor set to assume those responsibilities. Once his term ends, Dorsey told staff, he will leave the company entirely.
His departure comes after a major bust up between Dorsey and Elliott Management last year, a hedge fund run by Paul Singer which has a substantial stake in Twitter, which ended in the hedge fund trying to replace him as CEO.
After news of his departure broke, shares of Twitter rose 11 percent, but fell 6 percent after he announced his departure, to 5 percent above trading yesterday. By the afternoon, shares were down down nearly one percentage point
Twitter has lagged behind its competitors in the stock market for the past three years
While Dorsey managed to hold onto his role, the hedge fund was able to force Twitter to make multiple changes to its corporate structure. It was announced at the time that a board committee would be formed to 'evaluate the CEO succession plan,' according to The Verge.
In a statement after the announcement, Elliot Management managing partner Jesse Cohn and senior portfolio manager Marc Steinberg said: 'Twitter is now executing against an ambitious multi-year plan to dramatically increase the company's reach and value, and we look forward to the next chapter of Twitter's story.'
'Having gotten to know both incoming Chairman Bret Taylor and incoming CEO Parag Agrawal, we are confident that they are the right leaders for Twitter at this pivotal moment for the company.'
After CNBC broke the news of Dorsey's imminent departure, Twitter's share price soared by 11 percent, while those of Square Inc, which Dorsey also serves as the CEO of, were up 3 percent.
By 10am, NASDAQ had announced it would halt trading on the social media giant, but it soon resumed after Dorsey's announcement, dropping six percent to be up only 5 percent from the day before.
By the afternoon, shares of the social media giant dipped nearly 1 percent.
On Sunday, Dorsey tweeted: 'I love Twitter.'
On Sunday, Dorsey tweeted that he loves Twitter
Bret Taylor, the president and chief operating officer at Salesforce, was named the new chair of Twitter's board on Monday
In the email to company employees, Dorsey denied that he was pushed out of the company.
He wrote: 'After almost 16 years of having a role at our company from co-founder to CEO to chair to exec chair to interim CEO to CEO, I decided it's finally time for me to leave.
'There's a lot of talk about the importance of a company being 'founder led.' Ultimately, I believe that's severely limiting and a single point of failure.
'I've worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders,' he noted, citing Agrawal's agreement to become CEO and Bret Taylor agreeing to become the board chair as a reason he decided to step down now.
'The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag,' Dorsey wrote of Agrawal. 'He's been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs.
'He's curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware and humble,' Dorsey continued. 'He leads with heart and soul and is someone I learn from daily.
'My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep.'
Dorsey also noted to his employees: 'I want you all to know this was my decision and I own it. It was a tough one for me, of course. I love this company and all of you so much. I'm really sad... yet really happy.
'There aren't many companies that get to this level,' Dorsey continued. 'And there aren't many founders that choose their company over ego.
'I know we'll prove this was the right move.'
In 2019, Dorsey revealed he manages stress through a strict diet and exercise regimen as well as quirky lifestyle habits like hours of meditation each day.
He said his only daily meal is dinner, but he won't eat at all on weekends.
He also claims to have ditched warm showers altogether and walks the distance between his home and the social media HQ in an effort to make sure his mind stays sharp.
Dorsey claims the routine makes his days feel longer and says he's able to switch off to get ample sleep every night.
The tech boss shared details of his bizarre health regime in a March 15, 2019, podcast with Ben Greenfield Fitness.
He meditates daily and has been on retreats where he meditated from 4.30am to 9pm. Dorsey is pictured at a retreat
Dorsey previously posted online about dealing with stress through Vipassana meditation and even went to Myanmar in 2018 for a 'retreat' where there's no reading, writing, or devices allowed
But Dorsey doesn't eat at all for two days of the week as part of intermittent fasting. Pictured is food he posted on Twitter January 17
'During the day, I feel so much more focused. ... You have this very focused point of mind in terms of this drive,' Dorsey said about having his only meal between 6.30pm and 9pm.
He ditches food altogether for two days of the week and reintroduces calories into his diet with bone broth to prepare for the new week.
'I'll go from Friday 'til Sunday. I won't have dinner on Friday. I won't have dinner or any meal on Saturday. And the first time I'll eat will be Sunday evening. I've done that three times now where I do [an] extended fast where I'm just drinking water,' Dorsey revealed.
'The first time I did it, like day three, I felt like I was hallucinating. It was a weird state to be in. But as I did it the next two times, it just became so apparent to me how much of our days are centered around meals and how — the experience I had was when I was fasting for much longer, how time really slowed down.'
Dorsey was vegan for two years but switched to the paleo diet after his mother pointed out he was turning orange from too much beta kerotine.
Speaking about starting his day with ice baths Dorsey added: 'Nothing has given me more mental confidence than being able to go straight from room temperature into the cold.'
Dorsey has posted online about dealing with stress through Vipassana meditation during a 10-day 'retreat' where there's no reading, writing, or devices allowed.
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In response, Agrawal also posted a screengrab of an email he sent to employees, writing: 'Thank you Jack, I'm honored and humbled, and I'm grateful for your continued mentorship and your friendship.
'I'm grateful for the service that you built, the culture, soul and purpose you fostered among us and for leading the company through really significant challenges.
'I'm grateful for the trust you've put in me and for your continued partnership.'
Agrawal continued: 'Team, most of all, I'm grateful for all of you, and it's you who inspire confidence in our future together.
'I joined this company 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees,' he wrote. 'While it was a decade ago, those days feel like yesterday to me.
'I've walked in your shoes, I've seen the ups and downs, the challenges and obstacles, the wins and the mistakes,' Agrawal told the employees. 'But then and now, above all else, I see Twitter's incredible impact, our continued progress and the exciting opportunities ahead of us.
'Our people and our culture are unlike anything in the world.
'There is no limit to what we can do together,' he said, concluding by saying: 'The world is watching us right now, even more than they have before.
'Lots of people are going to have lots of different views and opinions about today's news. It is because they care about Twitter and our future, and it's a signal that the work we do here matters.
'Let's show the world Twitter's full potential.'
Agrawal has been at Twitter since 2011 and served as CTO since 2017. He had been in charge of strategy involving artificial intelligence and machine learning and he led projects to make tweets in users' timelines more relevant to them.
He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, where he studied Computer Science and Engineering. He has also held internships at major tech companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T.
Former employees told the Wall Street Journal that Agrawal is a close friend of Dorsey's and they have similar goals.
Bret Taylor, meanwhile, is the president and chief operating officer at Salesforce. He has served on Twitter's board since July 2016, and previously worked as a chief technology officer at Facebook and a Group Project manager at Google, where he co-created Google Maps, according to his LinkedIn.
Following the announcement on Monday, Taylor tweeted his congratulations to Agrawal and thanked Dorsey for his leadership.
'I'm honored to be the next chair of Twitter's board,' he wrote, adding: 'Today is an exciting day for Twitter and all of our stakeholders.'
The news of Dorsey's departure comes after years of the social media mogul facing scrutiny for his apparent censorship of conservative voices, with some accusing him of bias.
In January, following the unrest at the Capitol, the company announced it had permanently suspended former President Donald Trump citing 'the risk of further incitement of violence.'
He later defended the decision in a series of tweets, writing: 'I do not celebrate or feel pride' in the ban.
He added, 'I believe this was the right decision for Twitter. We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety.'
'Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all,' he continued.
'Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us. They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation,' Dorsey wrote.
The company also faced criticism after Twitter stopped users from linking to stories alleging Joe Biden may be corrupt ahead of the 2020 election.
The row exploded after the New York Post reported that Hunter Biden allegedly offered
