Twitter CTO Messinger to Exit, Further Depleting Executive Ranks

EghtesadOnline: Twitter Inc.’s chief technology officer is leaving, another blow to the social-media company’s top ranks just weeks after its chief operating officer resigned.

News ID: ۷۳۸۷۴۲

21 December 2016

Adam Messinger, who has been CTO since 2013, also took over leadership of the company’s product team earlier this year after repeated turnover in that job. The San Francisco-based company named a new head of product at the beginning of this month. Messinger’s division will now report directly to Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, Twitter said Tuesday in a statement.

According to Bloomberg, the executive departures add turmoil at a company that is already struggling with slowing revenue growth. Twitter recently cut 9 percent of its workforce in an effort to get closer to profitability, after exploring a potential sale of the company but getting no bids. With Messinger’s responsibilities shifting to Dorsey, the co-founder’s workload will increase further even as he maintains his other CEO job at Square Inc.

“We’re taking steps to streamline and flatten the organization by elevating our engineering, product and design functions, with each area now reporting directly to Jack,” Twitter said in a statement. “We believe these updates to our organizational structure will enable increased discipline in our product strategy and faster execution."

Messinger said in a Twitter posting that his departure was his own decision. Twitter last month lost COO Adam Bain, who built up the company’s advertising business. Neither executive has announced a next move.

Josh McFarland, a vice president of product at Twitter, is also leaving the company, he announced today. He’ll be joining Greylock Partners as an investing partner.

Twitter’s stock declined 1.8 percent to $17.92 at the close in New York before the announcement, and was little changed following the news. The shares have declined 23 percent this year, leaving the company with a market value of $12.8 billion.