|
 Media head Katie Jacobs Stanton, product head Kevin Weil, the head
of the engineering division, Alex Roetter, and HR head Brian "Skip"
Schipper will all leave the company, he said.
Addressing what he called inaccurate press rumors, Dorsey praised
the four executives and said he was sad to announce their
departures.
Twitter's stock has fallen nearly 50 percent since Dorsey's return
last year and is now trading below its IPO price amid concern the
company has failed to significantly boost its user base despite a
quicker pace of product rollouts under Dorsey.
On Sunday night Jason Toff, who heads Twitter's video streaming
service, Vine, tweeted that he was also leaving Twitter to join
Google to work on virtual reality. Dorsey's tweet did not mention
him.
In an earnings conference call in October, Dorsey spoke about
"hiring and investing in talent" and the need for "bold rethinking."
Twitter may announce other executive changes, including the
recruitment of a new chief marketing officer, on Monday, according
to a source familiar with the matter. The company will announce two
new board members soon, the person added.
Dorsey tweeted that Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain will take on
additional responsibilities as a result of the departures, including
revenue-related product teams and the HR team.
Chief Technical Officer Adam Messinger will handle the engineering
team, he said.
Weil, Stanton, Schipper and Roetter are among the highest-level
departures in recent months, but several executives have left
Twitter since co-founder Dorsey stepped in as interim CEO in July.
He has since been named Twitter CEO.
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Dorsey, who is also CEO of financial services technology company
Square, has yet to lay out a detailed plan of what he wants Twitter
to do differently. Dorsey plans a retreat with Twitter executives
this week, the source said.
Weil has been at Twitter since 2009, although he has only served as
its product head for about a year. He has often served as a face of
the company, speaking at conferences and hinting at new developments
on the site, such as a character count that would exceed the current
140-character limit.
Twitter has shuffled through three product heads since 2014, and
Dorsey has played an increasingly large role in product development.
Stanton joined the company in 2010 and was tasked with growing its
audience outside the United States. She previously worked at Google
Inc and Yahoo Inc as well as the White House and State
Department.
Twitter, which has just over 300 million users, had its slowest user
growth in 2015 and was eclipsed by photo-sharing app Instagram,
owned by Facebook Inc <FB.O>, which surpassed 400 million users last
year.
Since his return, Dorsey has launched Moments, a product developed
by Weil, which showcases Twitter's best tweets and content, laid off
300 workers and hired former Google executive Omid Kordestani as
executive chairman.
The news of the executive departures was first reported by the
technology news site Re/Code. (http://on.recode.net/1RHgCtc)
Re/Code also reported on expected board changes, and the New York
Times reported the company planned to name the two new board
members. (http://nyti.ms/1UkR96E)
(Additional reporting by Ankush Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by
Stephen R. Trousdale and Edwina Gibbs)
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