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Twitter’s interim CEO, Jack Dorsey, is about to become its full-time chief, according to a report Wednesday from Recode.
If true, then Dorsey — who also serves as CEO of payments company Square — would join a rarified circle in the tech industry. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are among the few other chief executives to simultaneously oversee two companies. Jobs ran Apple while heading Pixar; Musk is CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
Dorsey has been serving as Twitter’s interim chief since July 1, when then-CEO Dick Costolo stepped down.
Both Twitter and Square declined to comment on the report.
Dorsey’s first job: Make Twitter more appealing to more people. The imperative comes after the company in July said it had added relatively few active users — the metric that investors care most about — and said not to expect “sustained meaningful growth” for the foreseeable future.
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Put simply, the microblogging service is having a tough time attracting a mainstream audience, Dorsey told analysts during Twitter’s second-quarter conference call on July 28. “You should expect Twitter to be as easy as looking out your window to see what’s happening,” he said. “You should expect Twitter to show you what’s most meaningful in the world, delivered first before anyone else and straight from the source.”
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As full-time CEO, Dorsey would have his work cut out for him. The company so far has 316 million monthly active users, a mere fifth of the 1.5 billion users who regularly use Facebook. That relatively limited user base has made it difficult for the company to attract advertisers, which naturally want to reach the largest audience they can. To extend beyond Twitter’s traditional base of journalists, marketers and entertainers, Dorsey has been working to make it easier for people to find tweets that are relevant to them. The service has also been trying to become more inviting, taking steps to curb abusive or threatening messages.
Dorsey also stepped into a political controversy Tuesday when he welcomed to the social network new user Edward Snowden, who leaked thousands of NSA documents. Hours later, Republican presidential candidate and former New York Gov. George Pataki called on Twitter to shut down Snowden’s account.
Analysts and Twitter investors have been hot for Dorsey to permanently take the reins, even as he prepares Square for its initial public offering, anticipated sometime this year.
Earlier this month, Chris Sacca, among Twitter’s earliest and largest shareholders, blasted the company for not naming Dorsey to the position. “They are running a ‘process’ yet there is only one person fit to run this company: @Jack,” Sacca tweeted, using Dorsey’s Twitter handle. “Enough is enough.”
Last week, SunTrust analyst Robert Peck called Dorsey “the most logical choice, particularly with no ‘superior’ external candidate surfacing. We are stunned that we have now passed over 100 days since” Costolo announced his resignation. Peck is considered Wall Street’s leading analyst on Twitter.
Twitter could announce Dorsey’s new role as early as tomorrow, according to Recode.
