Jack Dorsey leaves Twitter roost

The Future. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO yesterday, installing CTO Parag Argrawal in the top position. While Dorsey will inevitably focus his energies (and Bitcoin obsession) on Square full time, his recent projects (a push into crypto and a bid to create a decentralized platform with Bluesky) may take more of a backseat in his absence.

Top bird
In a surprise move, Jack Dorsey is leaving the post he’s most known for, CEO of Twitter.

• Yesterday, Dorsey stepped down from his role as CEO of the social media giant, effective immediately.
• Dorsey will stay on as a member of the board until sometime next year.

CTO Parag Argrawal (an engineer by trade who has been at Twitter for over a decade and was a key driver behind its recent audience growth) has been named the new CEO.

When the news first broke, Twitter’s stock jumped more than 10%… but actually ended the day down by almost 3% — a Wall Street story as complicated as Dorsey himself.

Taking flight
Interestingly, Dorsey’s time as CEO of Twitter has been chock full of other people kicking him off or trying to kick him off from the top leadership role. After co-founding the company and taking the top role in 2006, he was pushed out only two years later… and then returned again as CEO in 2015. Then early last year, Dorsey fought off activist investor Elliott Management, which tried to push him out because he’s also the CEO of Square.

Speaking of Square, Dorsey is still CEO of the payments company, which is worth twice as much as Twitter. So, yeah, Dorsey has his hands plenty full.