Jack Dorsey Will Lead Twitter

That got us thinking about Jack Dorsey (the aforementioned Twitter CEO) and Dov Charney (the aforementioned fired head of American Apparel).

The businessman, who is about to begin his second stint at the helm, will juggle the role with his responsibilities as chief executive of mobile payments company Square.

Whether he would hold the top job at both companies had been a matter of speculation. Investors applauded Dorsey’s permanent comeback, pushing Twitter shares up 2.8 percent to $27.05 in pre-market trade.

The decision may come as a slight surprise to a few as there had been rumors going on for a while that Dorsey won’t be holding the position for long and Twitter was looking for a new CEO for which Adam Bain was a strong contender for the CEO position but he had made it clear that he would take the role only if Dorsey would step down himself.

But Dorsey tweeted on Monday that “I’ve been CEO of both companies for over 3 months now”.

The board also appointed Adam Bain, who has been president, Global Revenue & Partnerships since September 2010, as COO.

Twitter also said Costolo had resigned from the company’s board. The changes were approved by the board of directors on September 30.

While running Apple, Jobs also was CEO of computer animation pioneer Pixar until the company was sold to Disney in 2006.

Dorsey’s biggest challenge at Twitter will be finding a way to make the site easier to navigate and broaden its appeal beyond media junkies, athletes, celebrities and politicians.

“Currently, the product makes people do lot of work to realize the value”, Dorsey said.

The short messaging service has amassed more than 300 million users but its growth has been slowing to the frustration of investors, even as people spend more time online, particularly on their smartphones.

The social network is under intense pressure to figure out how to draw new users to its service.

The soft-spoken Dorsey, who will turn 39 next month, promised as much in a tweet after Monday’s announcement.