Five Executives Leave Twitter Amidst Falling Share Prices

By Tom Bunting 1/25/2016

Twitter is losing five major executives, including the general manager for Twitter-owned video app, Vine.

​Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced in a post on the social media site that product head, Kevin Weil, head of engineering Alex Roetter, head of media Katie Jacobs Stanton, and human resources vice president Brian Schipper are all voluntarily leaving the company. Roetter and Weil had both been five year veterans at the company.

None of the departing executives has announced their future plans, with Dorsey stating, “All four will be taking some well-deserved time off.” Dorsey implied in his announcement that the changes were voluntary, however, the New York Times reports that at least one of the four had been asked to leave.

Vine General Manager, Jason Toff, in a separate post on Twitter, announced he would be leaving the company to join Google’s virtual reality division. Toff had been heading the team behind the six-second video sharing app since early 2014.

The news comes at a perilous time for Twitter. The company’s stock in the past year has lost half its value. Investor fear comes from a period of uncertainty as the company struggles to build upon itself. User growth at the social media network giant has slowed, and the company has faced challenges in monetizing and expanding its service, with advertising-heavy features like Moments failing to gain momentum.

Last October the company announced it would be laying off 8 percent of its employees, up to 336 employees. Criticism has been levied against the service’s poor tools for curbing abuse and violations of free speech in near-equal measure.

​​​Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder, was back to the company as CEO last year. He also serves as the CEO of online payment service Square. Twitter is expected to report its quarterly earnings on February 10th.