 "Twitter CEO Dorsey to give a third of his stock to employees")
Twitter Inc chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey is giving a third of his Twitter stock to the company’s employees, he said in a tweet on Friday.
According to a Fortune report, Dorsey is “gift” to employees will be about 7 million of about 22 million shares that he owns in the company. The shares given away by the CEO, amounting to one per cent of total shares in the San Francisco-based microblogging company, is worth about $200 million by current value. He said the move was to “reinvest directly in our people”. It would go into the employee equity pool.
“I’d rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small,” Dorsey tweeted. “I’m confident we can make Twitter big!”
It’s been a rough couple of weeks since Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey took over as CEO. While the share price got a short-term boost from his arrival, it weakened again after Dorsey announced that the company had grown too large, and would have to lay off about 335 employees (about 8 per cent of the company’s workforce).
Boosting employee morale
According to a Bloomberg report, Dorsey’s decision to give away his shares might boost employee morale after recent staff cuts and help Twitter expand the pool of stock used to compensate employees without dilution. In the two weeks since he officially took the top job, Dorsey has made some big moves. Besides cutting workforce, he appointed a new executive chairman, introduced the new Moments product and held a developer conference. Also, Twitter is going to announce its September quarter earnings next week, on October 27.
Donated a major chunk of Square Inc
The Bloomberg report further said Dorsey owned a bigger share of Square Inc (the payments company, where he was also CEO) which is currently preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). Of his 24.4 per cent in Square, Dorsey is giving a large portion to an organisation he created. The Start Small Foundation will invest in artists, musicians and local businesses in underserved communities.