Board members are starting to admit that Jack Dorsey could run both Square and Twitter
When former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced his resignation, the company's board said that it would only consider replacement candidates who could "make a full-time commitment to Twitter."
That seemed to rule out the possibility of interim CEO and Twitter cofounder, Jack Dorsey, from staying on permanently, because he's also the CEO of payments startup Square, which has reportedly filed to go public. Dorsey has made it clear, both publicly and privately to insiders , that he doesn't plan to leave Square.
Now the board is apparently reconsidering their rule, and investors have started to declare their support for Dorsey, too.
"After watching Jack execute on his vision at Square, and more recently at Twitter as C.E.O., we are highly confident in Jack's ability to serve as C.E.O. of both companies," a spokesman for Rizvi Traverse Management, which owns a ~5% stake in Twitter told Isaac.
Rizvi Traverse Management's support joins a chorus that includes early Twitter investor Chris Sacca and Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, a major Square shareholder. Sacca recently declared that all of Twitter's "largest shareholders" want Dorsey to be named permanent CEO, despite his joint committment to Square. Sacca also tweeted on Friday that there's only one board member who's standing in the way of appointing Dorsey CEO:
Meanwhile, sources also told Isaac that Beth Comstock, vice chairwoman of GE, is one of the candidates suggested by the firm Twitter hired to make recommendations.