Tag: Jack Dorsey

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Former Twitter CEO subpoenaed by Elon Musk’s lawyers

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter’s October trial is fast approaching, and Musk’s lawyers have asked the court to summon none other than Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey, as reported by The National Post.

The trial, in which Twitter is suing Musk for backing out of a $44 billion acquisition deal, is set to take place on October 17th in Delaware, and will determine whether the social media company can force the world’s richest man to complete the purchase.

“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” said Twitter at the time. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”

On the other hand, Musk says that Twitter failed to share factual information regarding the bot infestation on the platform. Twitter says that spam bots comprise less than five percent of its total user base, whereas Musk argues otherwise, claiming that roughly 20 percent of the platform’s users are spam bots. 

Inversely, Twitter has subpoenaed people connected to Musk, including Marc Andreessen and David Sacks.

This comes soon after Judge Kathleen St. Jude McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered Twitter to comply with Musk’s lawyers’ motion to “collect, review, and produce documents” from Kayvon Beykpour, the former head of consumer product at Twitter.

Back in April, Dorsey criticized the Twitter board after it issued a new shareholder rights plan to block Musk from taking the company private. Dorsey has also made it clear that he thinks Tesla CEO and potential Twitter owner Elon Musk is the “singular solution” to transitioning the social media platform from a company to a public good.

It is currently unclear what Dorsey’s stance is regarding the lawsuit.

Source: The National Post

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Former Twitter CEO criticizes the platform’s board amid talks about Elon Musk takeover

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is criticizing the social media platform’s  board after it issued a new shareholder rights plan to block the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, from taking the company private.

It all started with Initialized founder Garry Tan‘s tweet stating, “The wrong partner on your board can literally make a billion dollars in value evaporate,” to which Dorsey replied by saying “big facts,” indicating that he agrees with Tan.

@iHadrami_‘s reply to the tweet, which talks about Twitter’s early days being “mired in plots and coups,” specifically among its founding members, further riled up Dorsey, with him stating that said plots and coups have “consistently been the dysfunction of the company.”

It’s worth noting that despite resigning as the platform’s CEO, Dorsey still has a seat on Twitter’s Board of Directors until the end of his term next month.

The debate comes soon after Musk purchased 9.2 percent of the social network in March, making him the largest individual shareholder of the company. At the time, he was set to join Twitter’s board of directors before pulling out.

Then, earlier last week, Musk revealed a proposal to purchase Twitter outright and take the company private. In a letter to the board, Musk offered to pay $54.20 a share in cash, which turns out to be about $43 billion for the company. In response, the Twitter board of directors deployed the shareholder rights plan, which, in essence, allows shareholders to purchase additional stock, and would prevent Musk from seizing control of the platform.

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Square changes its name to Block

In the spirit of changing the names of well-known organizations, financial services company Square is now known as Block.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey co-founded the company that has grown its interests from finances. The company is now a stakeholder in Tidal, a music, podcast, and video streaming service, and the name change acknowledges this growth. Dorsey currently serves as CEO.

“We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs,” Dorsey said in a press release. “Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.”

The change also resulted in Square Crypto, an initiative under the company focusing on Bitcoin, now being known as Spiral. The press release notes no organizational changes will occur.

Image credit: Block

Source: Block

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Jack Dorsey names Parag Agrawal as new Twitter CEO in resignation letter

PARIS, FRANCE June 7th 2019 : CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey at Elysee Palace for an interview with the french President.

Jack Dorsey is stepping away from Twitter.

The former CEO shared a screenshot of his resignation email on Twitter after numerous media reports detailed his departure.

He wrote he wants the company to work separately from its founders. While many find it important for companies to be led by their founders, Dorsey said this was “severely limiting and a single point of failure.”

Former CTO Parag Agrawal is the company’s new CEO. He started with the Twitter as an engineer.

Dorsey notes Agrawal was appointed after a “rigorous process” from Twitter’s board and said he was his first choice and was behind decisions that helped the company succeed. “My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep.”

Bret Taylor will serve as the chair of the board. The “ambition and potential” of the team made leaving now a good time.

Dorsey has worked at Twitter for the past 16 years and has filled numerous roles including CEO and executive chair. He will continue to serve on the board until May.

“I want you all to know that this was my decision and I own it. It was a tough one for me, of course,” he wrote in conclusion. “There aren’t many companies that get to this level. And there aren’t many founders that choose their company over their own ego. I know we’ll prove this was the right move.”

Image credit: ShutterStock

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You can now ‘Tip’ using Bitcoin on Twitter, NFT ‘blue check’ in the works

Image source: Twitter press kit

Great news, crypto-enthusiasts: Twitter is expanding its “Tips” payment options to include Bitcoin, and is working on a new authentication system so users can show off their NFTs.

In a press release, the social media platform announced that as part of the global roll-out of its tipping feature, it was also expanding the list of third-party payment services users could tip through.

Notably, this list now includes Strike, a free application that lets people send and receive Bitcoin.

Twitter also teased an in-development NFT authentication system, which would let users connect crypto-wallets to Twitter accounts to track and display their NFTs.

Authenticated users would receive a visual symbol on their profile, which the company says could potentially be a badge — similar to Twitter’s iconic blue checkmark — or even a different avatar shape.

Twitter’s turn toward cryptocurrency is both unsurprising — given CEO Jack Dorsey’s personal investments and very public fascination with the stuff — and a stark reversal of its previous stance, such as its 2017 decision to ban cryptocurrency ads on the platform.

First announced in May 2021, the ‘Tips’ feature was previously only made available to English-language Twitter users.

However, despite today’s global roll-out, tipping is still only available on iOS, with Android compatibility reportedly coming soon.

‘Tips’ is one of several strategies from Twitter that aims to, in its own words, “turn followers into fans, and fans into funds.”

The funds are meant to support the platform’s “creators,” who Twitter defines as “people who are driving conversations and want to make a living on social media.”

Other recently announced monetization features include ‘Super Follows‘ and ‘Ticketed Spaces‘.

Image credit: Twitter

Source: Twitter