Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to step down

REUTERS: Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey will step down from his role and Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal will become his successor, Twitter announced on Monday.

Dorsey’s departure marks the end of his second CEO stint at the social networking site, and he leaves at a time when Twitter has made headlines for its renewed pace of product launches after years of criticism that the site had fallen behind larger rivals like ‘Facebook’ and new social media apps such as ‘TikTok’ in innovation.

Despite the quickened pace of new features, shares of Twitter have slumped in recent months, adding pressure on Dorsey to end his unusual arrangement of being CEO of two companies.

Dorsey is stepping down now because he feels confident about his successor and will focus on his payments processing firm Square Inc. and other pursuits such as philanthropy, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Dorsey co-founded Twitter in 2006 and became CEO the following year.

In 2008, Co-Founder Ev Williams and board member Fred Wilson pushed out Dorsey as the social media site gained steam with users and they determined he was unfit to lead the company, but after years of stagnant growth and a slumping share price, Dorsey returned as CEO in 2015 while continuing to lead Square.