Twitter has made co-founder Jack Dorsey its new CEO, ending months of speculation and handing him the tough task of turning around the company’s sluggish user growth.
Twitter’s shares rose as much as 6 percent after the announcement, which ended months of speculation about who would take the top job at the microblogging service.
Dorsey has been running Twitter as interim CEO to much acclaim since his predecessor, Dick Costolo, stepped down on July 1.
Twitter is working to rekindle growth after its latest quarterly results revealed the slowest rise in monthly average users since the company went public in 2013.
Some investors had expressed concerns about whether Dorsey could run both Twitter and Square, which he also co-founded. Square is expected to go public this year and Dorsey may have to devote substantial time courting investors for the IPO.
Investors including early shareholders Chris Sacca and Rivzi Traverse had put pressure on the Twitter board to appoint Mr Dorsey soon, arguing that his commitments at Square would not damage his ability to lead Twitter.
But others say Dorsey, 38, is a more effective leader now than in 2008, when he was fired from his first stint as Twitter CEO.
Dorsey is not the first person to run two major companies. Steve Jobs led Apple Inc and animated movie studio Pixar for several years. Elon Musk runs electric car pioneer Tesla Motors Inc and rocket maker SpaceX.
The board also appointed Adam Bain, who has been president, Global Revenue & Partnerships since September 2010, as COO. Also on September 30, Costolo resigned his position on Twitter’s board.
Dorsey created Twitter in 2005 and 2006 with Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass. Dorsey became CEO soon after but lost the role in 2008.
The following year he co-founded Square, known for its technology that lets small merchants take credit card payments on smartphones and tablets. He’s chairman and CEO of that company, in addition to now being CEO of Twitter.
