It is no secret that Twitter is struggling to turn its fate around and make money out of its microblogging platform, but a new report highlights the company's internal growing pains as executives and staff members have been leaving the company in small droves since last year.
The Financial Times reports that at least 450 Twitter employees have left for the proverbial greener pastures since June 2014, when then-chief operating officer Ali Rowghani stepped down followed by the resignation of then-vice president of media Chloe Sladden, who had been working at Twitter for five years prior. Shortly afterward, Twitter decided to demote then-chief financial officer Mike Gupta.
Also among the most prominent departures is that of Jim Payne, CEO of the mobile advertising firm Twitter purchased for $350 million to boost its mobile ads. Following Payne's resignation in late 2014, all key sales, marketing and business development personnel who were assimilated from MoPub to Twitter have left.
In June, Twitter's then-head of corporate development Rishi Garg, who headed of one of the most active mergers and acquisitions operations in Silicon Valley, filed his resignation along with Jessica Verrilli, one of Twitter's first employees who was leaving for Google's venture capital arm. Their departures followed just months after Cynthia Gaylor, Garg's predecessor, left in October 2014.
Most recently, Twitter co-founder and interim CEO Jack Dorsey fired its then-head of communications Gabriel Stricker, whose responsibility over Twitter's marketing team was handed over to chief financial officer Anthony Noto, previously of Goldman Sachs.
By studying Twitter's LinkedIn profile, the Financial Times has come to conclude that at least 12 percent of the company's entire staff members have left since then. However, as the news outlet reports, it is very likely that more than this number have left Twitter since not all Twitter employees have LinkedIn accounts or are updating their accounts.
Analyst Robert Peck of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey believes that the massive capital being raised by many technological startups could attract Twitter's employees to leave for valuable stock pre-IPO stocks. However, a more compelling reason could be the lack of a permanent leader as Twitter goes through major hurdles to grow its user base and increase its financial value.
"While some key talent may leave the company while it is in flux, it may also be difficult to hire new key talent without a permanent chief executive being in place," says Peck.
Dorsey is being eyed by Twitter as the main contender for the position. However, with latest reports that Square, Dorsey's other company where he is a CEO and owns 25 percent of the stock, has confidentially filed for initial public offering, analysts are now unsure if he plans on staying as Twitter CEO permanently.
Twitter has announced that it will only consider candidates who can dedicate their schedules full-time to the company. If Dorsey prefers to stay as Square CEO, Twitter could likely look to other candidates, including Noto and its head of revenue Adam Bain, to lead the company out of the quagmire.
Photo: Kevin Krejci | Flickr
