The exodus of top Twitter executives continues with the impending departure of two more upper-level managers, VP of Product Josh McFarland and Chief Technology Officer Adam Messinger.
More Twitter Executives Leave
Twitter Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain left the social media company last month. On Tuesday, Dec. 20, VP of Product Josh McFarland and Chief Technology Officer Adam Messinger have also announced that they plan to leave the company.
Messinger has been with the Twitter social media company for four years. He explained in a tweet posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday that the reason for his departure is his need to take some time off. According to Forbes, MacFarland is leaving his top exec position at Twitter in order to join venture capital outfit Greylock Partners as an investor.
According to Digital Trends, Twitter CEO, and founder Jack Dorsey recently announced that Keith Coleman, formerly of Google and Yes Inc., is going to take the lead of the products division. The company has seen a steadily sliding stock price and two rounds of layoffs in two years, despite being top a social media network.
Dorsey responded to Messinger's news with his own tweet, thanking him for everything he has done for the company. Meanwhile, McFarland wrote in his own tweet that the last 18 months with Twitter have been deeply rewarding and that he loved working with the company. McFarland also said that he will be working as a general partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners, after considering venture capital for years.
Greylock partner James Slavet wrote in a blog post on Tuesday that the company had started trying to recruit McFarland in 2008 when he was working at Google and had been trying to recruit him for the past eight years. According to Slavet's post, McFarland is expected to leave Twitter late in the first quarter of 2017.
Reasons For Twitter's Executives Turnover
As we can see, in less than two months three top executives have announced their departure from Twitter. It is not the first time when something like this is happening. In the past year, the social media company has also had to deal with vacancies in high-level jobs.
In January Twitter lost four members of its leadership team, according to Computerworld. Among them were included the head of engineering, a product head, the head of media and the vice president of human resources. Reports surfaced shortly after the exodus, claiming that the company was handing out additional stock and six-figure bonuses in order to keep others from leaving.
During the U.S. presidential campaign, the social network emerged as a key tool. President-elect Donald Trump used Twitter to communicate directly with his supporters, frequently bypassing the traditional media. Twitter continues to be a fast source for users in commenting on terrorist attacks, natural disasters or political unrest.
But despite all this, Twitter wasn't able to leverage its influence to fuel its business. According to industry analysts, this is the reason why there is inner turmoil within the social media company.
Twitter reported 317 million monthly active users in the third quarter of this year, and a net loss of $103 million. The company also announced that is closing its mobile video app Vine and would cut its workforce by about 9 percent.
Earlier this year, Twitter was exploring an eventual sale and several companies were expressing their interest to buying it, including Google parent Alphabet, Disney, and Salesforce. However, according to CNBC, all companies backed out from the deal.
The incredible amount of executive turnover experienced by the company could be explained by Twitter's lack of user and financial growth. Executives and employees are working very hard, but if they cannot see confidence in a bright future then they aren't willing to do that any more.
