Twitter to name Jack Dorsey as permanent CEO

A dual CEO role may seem like a stretch, but it appears momentum is gathering to endorse Dorsey to do just that. As recently as April, the stock traded above the $50 handle – the subsequent plunge in share prices helped instigate an eventual move in management. This week, key Twitter and Square investors gave Dorsey an informal vote of confidence that he could handle helming both companies.

Dorsey took over as interim CEO a few months ago after Dick Costolo stepped down, with the search for a future leader seemingly heading down a well worn path.

But he remains devoted to Square, the payment processing company he founded, and has no intention to step down as CEO.

“This isn’t a hypothetical situation, he’s been back in charge of Twitter now for over a quarter and over that time we’ve seen the product road map accelerate dramatically”, he said.

Dorsey, who had been considered a lead internal candidate, will also continue to be CEO at mobile-payments company Square., the technology news website reported, without citing sources.

Neither company commented on the Re/code report.

Re/code’s sources indicated that the Twitter board has not officially voted on Dorsey’s appointment as it is still settling other executive roles, notably the positions of chief operating officer and chief financial officer.

Square is slated to go public in the coming weeks.

Twitter’s CEO search board responded to Dorsey’s bid with an ultimatum: they wanted their CEO to make a “full time commitment” to the company.

The fact that Twitter – which is suffering from a major slowdown in growth and user engagement – will have to share its CEO, instead of having someone who can devote their full-time attention to revamping the company, is clearly causing a few misgivings among investors. Twitter said in July that it has failed to add new active users, a metric that investors are most interested in. Apple co-founder Jobs was a majority shareholder in, and chairman of, animation giants Pixar, while Musk founded and holds the top posts in both electric auto manufacturers Tesla and rocket makers SpaceX.