Why did Jack Dorsey resign? Key takeaways from resignation letter as Parag Agarwal assumes role of new Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey has quit as Twitter CEO (Image via David Becker/Getty Images)
Jack Dorsey has quit as Twitter CEO (Image via David Becker/Getty Images)

On Monday, November 29, Twitter Inc. appointed its new CEO, Parag Agarwal, after Jack Dorsey stepped down. The latter has been with the social-media giant since he co-founded it almost 16 years ago.

Jack Dorsey shared snaps of his letter to all Twitter employees, declaring his departure. In an internal letter, Dorsey wrote:

"I decided it's finally time for me to leave. Why? There's a lot of talk about the importance of a company being "founder-led". Ultimately, I believe that's severely limiting and a single point of failure."

Reasons behind Jack Dorsey leaving Twitter

He will be leaving Twitter as CEO and exit as a board member in 2022 (near May). In the letter, Jack cited three reasons for justifying his decision.

He wrote:

"The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag. He's been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs."

The 45-year-old also said that Brett Taylor joining Twitter as board chair is another reason that fortified Jack Dorsey's decision to resign.

Jack labeled Bret as someone who understands "entrepreneurship, taking risks, companies at massive scale, technology, product".

Bret Taylor was previously associated with Google, which he left in 2007. He is the co-creator of Google Maps and was responsible for the platform's APIs.

Furthermore, Dorsey wrote:

"And he's an engineer. Having Bret in this leadership role gives me a lot of confidence in the strength of our board going forward."

Jack, who now remains the CEO of Square, mentioned that the third reason is the firm's employees. He said:

"The third is all of you. We have a lot of ambition and potential on this team. Consider this: Parag started here as an engineer who cared deeply about our work, and now he's our CEO (I also had a similar path... he did it better!)."

The controversy behind Jack Dorsey's resignation from Twitter

In March 2020, Elliott Management bought $1 billion worth of shares in Twitter, which resulted in them owning around 9% equity of the social-media giant. The company wanted to replace Dorsey, or at the very least wanted him to step down as CEO of Twitter Inc., as he is also the CEO of Square.

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However, Elliott Management reportedly backed down from its demands after Jack Dorsey dealt with the congressional hearing in October 2020. In his letter, the St. Louis, Missouri native had also mentioned that he would be part of the board until 2022 to help Parag Agarwal and Bret Taylor with the transition.

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Edited by Ravi Iyer