Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Leaves Behind Sagging Stock

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey said Monday he’d step down as CEO after a series of missteps — including the censoring of a bombshell story on Hunter Biden — and a share price that stubbornly lagged behind peers, reports The NY Post.

The long-bearded and nose-ringed Dorsey, who had been under pressure from hard-charging billionaire Paul Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Management after doing double duty as CEO of Twitter and payments giant Square, said a hand-picked successor, Parag Agrawal, would succeed him.

Parag Agrawal

Agrawal, who started at Twitter in 2011 as a software engineer and has served since 2017 as the company’s chief technology officer, could more forcefully push the company toward arenas beyond its 280-character social posts. He has led Twitter’s artificial intelligence and machine-learning efforts.

But he’ll also be walking into a hornet’s nest when it comes to the company’s role as an arbiter of content.

Dorsey was blasted during his tenure after Twitter blocked the account of the New York Post for its exclusive reports in October 2020 on the contents of a hard drive that held emails and other materials from a laptop that was abandoned at a Delaware repair shop by Biden’s son, Hunter.

Agrawal will  have his work cut out for him: Twitter’s share price is down more than 1.5 percent over the past year, when compared to gains of 10 percent at archrival Snap over the same time frame and more than 22 percent at Meta, or the former Facebook Inc. (The broader market has gained nearly 30 percent over the past year.)

Critics of Dorsey have long been skeptical of his dual roles as CEO of both Twitter and payment-processing firm Square, charging that he can’t effectively manage both multi-billion dollar companies.

Investors seemed to be cheered by Dorsey’s exit, sending Twitter shares spiking more than 11 percent in the wake of the news, but by the end of trade Monday, shares had given up their gains and were down more than 2.6 percent.