Jan. 25--In a major shakeup of leadership, Twitter Inc. announced four top executives are leaving the microblogging company, just three months after co-founder Jack Dorsey was officially reinstated as chief executive.
Dorsey said Alex Roetter, senior vice president of engineering; Brian "Skip" Schipper, vice president of human resources; Katie Stanton, vice president of global media; and Kevin Weil, senior vice president of product, had chosen to leave the company.
Additionally, Jason Toff, general manager of the Twitter-owned social media app Vine said he was leaving for Google to work on virtual reality.
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"I'm personally grateful to each of them for everything they've contributed to Twitter and our purpose in the world," Dorsey said in a statement tweeted Sunday night. "They are phenomenal people!"
Dorsey said he had hoped to talk to Twitter employees about the departures this week but "wanted to set the record straight now" because of "inaccurate press rumors."
Twitter Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain and Chief Technology Officer Adam Messinger will be taking on additional responsibilities, Dorsey said.
The departures perpetuate a sense of turmoil at the San Francisco company, which has struggled to keep pace with competitors such as Facebook. Twitter shares have fallen by more than 50% in the last year and were down 54 cents, or 3%, to $17.30 in early trading Monday.
"Investors we speak with are almost universally negative on Twitter and its prospects," Robert Peck, managing director and Internet equity analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, said in a note to clients Monday.
It's been a tumultuous seven months for a company that's both embedded in the cultural zeitgeist and derided by Wall Street investors.
In June, Dick Costolo stepped down as Twitter's chief executive as the company struggled to grow beyond its 300 million active users and introduce new features. Dorsey served as interim chief executive for three months before gaining the title permanently in October.
He had previously served as the company's first chief executive after co-founding Twitter in 2006, but was fired two years later. He also serves as chief executive of the mobile payments company Square.
In October, Twitter said it would cut 336 jobs, or 8% of its global workforce. It introduced new features such as Moments, which curates some of the most buzz-worthy conversations taking place on the platform. There is also talk of increasing the 140-character limit per tweet to 10,000.
Despite those efforts, rumors that the company would be sold continued to persist as recently as last week. Potential bidders included Google, Time Warner and 21st Century Fox.
Twitter has now lost eight of 13 executives who presented at the company's analyst day last year.
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