Dick Costolo is stepping down as CEO of Twitter, the company announced in a tweet on Thursday.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of the 9-year-old site, will serve as the interim CEO effective July 1. He will also serve as CEO of Square, the electronic payment company he co-founded in 2009.
Dorsey assumed the role of executive chairman of Twitter’s board of directors 2011. Costolo was named CEO of Twitter in 2010, replacing co-founder Evan Williams.
Costolo will continue to serve on Twitter’s board of directors. Meanwhile, Twitter’s board has formed a search committee to lead the search for a permanent CEO. The search committee is chaired by the board’s lead independent director, Peter Currie, and includes Peter Fenton and Evan Williams.
“I am tremendously proud of the Twitter team and all that the team has accomplished together during my six years with the company,” Costolo said in a press release. “We have great leaders who work well together and a clear strategy that informs our objectives and priorities. There is no one better than Jack Dorsey to lead Twitter during this transition.”
“The future belongs to Twitter thanks in large part to Dick Costolo’s dedication and vision,” Dorsey said. “Dick has put a world-class team in place and created a great foundation from which Twitter can continue to change the world and grow.”
Twitter shares are up 7.7 percent in after-hours trading after closing at $38.60. The company currently has 302 million monthly active users, with 500 million tweets sent per day.
Our CEO, @dickc, will step down as CEO, and we’ll welcome @jack as Interim CEO on July 1 #TWTRannouncement: http://t.co/q8Ygg91jzc
– Twitter (@twitter) June 11, 2015
