Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to Keep His Job After Major Investor Agrees to Let Him Stay On

Twitter and activist investor, Elliott Management have agreed to a compromise that keeps founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey in his position but changes the platform’s board.

This comes after reports suggested that the hedge fund investor was about to kick Dorsey off his job as Twitter CEO.

According to Twitter’s announcement, it has struck a deal with both Elliot Management and a new investor, Silver Lake. This deal includes a $1 billion investment from Silver Lake, one which will be used together with cash on hand to fund a $2 billion repurchase of Twitter’s own shares over time.

Beyond this, Egon Durban, co-CEO and managing partner of Silver Lake, and Jesse Cohn, partner at Elliott, will be appointed to the Twitter Board of Directors. The Twitter Board will look for a third new independent director. This director is expected to possess deep technology and AI expertise as well as reflect the Twitter culture.

This news deal puts an end to the imbroglio of removing Jack Dorsey as CEO of Twitter – at least in the immediate.

Earlier in the month, we reported that Jack Dorsey might be replaced at his job as Twitter CEO. This was as Elliot Management, who had just bought a 4% stake in the company, pushed for a new person at the helm of affairs. This threat was born out of concerns that the company wasn’t doing as well as it should and Jack wasn’t doing enough.

The threat was so intense that last week, the techpreneur had to cancel his proposed temporal relocation to Africa. While he claimed this was due to the coronavirus threat and “everything else going on”, it wasn’t hard to see ‘everything else going on’ meant the struggle to keep his job.

Now, looks like all that is over as Dorsey is now to focus on building Twitter and ensuring its rapid growth.

“Twitter serves the public conversation, and our purpose has never been more important. We welcome the support of Egon and Jesse, and look forward to their positive contributions as we continue to build a service that delivers for customers, and drives value for stakeholders,” Dorsey says.