Board ‘constant dysfunction’ of Twitter, says ex-CEO Jack Dorsey

After billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter, the microblogging site's co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey has said that the company board has “consistently been the dysfunction of the company.” Dorsey is still a board member till next month with 2.2 per cent share. 

He was replying to a Twitter user when he made the remarks.

A Twitter user said, “If [we] look into the history of Twitter board, it’s intriguing as I was a witness on its early beginnings, mired in plots and coups, and particularly amongst Twitter’s founding members. I wish I could be made into a Hollywood thriller one day.”

Dorsey also agreed with venture capitalist Garry Tan when he said, “The wrong partner on your board can literally make a billion dollars in value evaporate. It is not the sole reason behind every start-up failure but it is the true story a surprising percentage of the time.”

He also said “No” when a user asked him whether he can talk about the Twitter board publicly.

Musk had claimed earlier that Twitter board collectively owns no shares with the departure of Dorsey. Musk tweeted, “Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.”

A user then said that this is weird and asked whether Jack not own any shares of “something he created.”

Dorsey then replied, “When I was fired in 2008 and made chair, the board took most of my shares away from me. I also gave 1 per cent of the company back to the employee pool in 2015. So, ended up with very little of company.”

For the unversed, Musk had proposed an offer to buy 100 per cent stake in Twitter for $43 billion or $54.20 per share last week. Musk said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, “My offer is best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.” He added the site has “extraordinary potential.”

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