Jack Dorsey finally steps down as Twitter’s CEO after 8 years of underperformance

Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down, to be replaced by current CTO Parag Argrawal.

What’s the big deal? Jack Dorsey is CEO of two publicly traded companies — and their stock performance couldn’t be more different:

• Twitter (NASDAQ:TWTR) — is up 5% since its IPO in 2013.
• Square (NASDAQ:SQ) — is up 1,556% since its IPO in 2015.

Dorsey was long criticized for his dual role as CEO — spending too much time on Square and other projects.

Early last year, activist investor — Elliott Management — took a stake in Twitter and launched a battle to oust Dorsey. But all was good for the next 18 months:

• Deal struck: Dorsey stayed on as CEO and Elliott Management received board seats.
• COVID: Growth picked up during COVID — sending TWTR stock to record highs.

Throwing products at users… With nothing sticking. For years, Twitter struggled with growth — going through countless failed products: Stories (IG stories?), Spaces (audio chat rooms like Clubhouse), Fleets (disappearing messages like Snapchat).

In 2021, Twitter acquired Breaker (social podcasting app) and Revue (newsletter platform), and launched Blue, a subscription service for $2.99 per month.

Looking forward: Twitter set big targets for itself to increase daily average users by over 50% and double sales by 2023. With growth slowing post-COVID and Dorsey departing — reaching those goals are even more uncertain.

The problem goes beyond Twitter — as other social media apps are also seeing slower user growth and reeling from brands pulling advertising back due to a lack of inventory.

• Pinterest (NASDAQ:PINS) is down over 50% and Snap (NASDAQ:SNAP) is down over 40% from their 2021 peaks.
• Despite these big drops — they’re still up triple digits since the start of 2020.