Twitter is no stranger to leadership changes: the company’s first CEO Jack Dorsey was pushed out in a high-profile power struggle back in 2008 just as the social media service began to take off.
But now Dorsey is set to take over again from erstwhile CEO Dick Costolo, and this time the company is taking pains to portray the process as a friendly transition. Dorsey said on a call Thursday with investors that Costolo’s move is totally voluntary, and not tied to investor impatience with the company’s performance in rolling out new products or growing revenue and users. Costolo is also remaining on Twitter’s board.
In an interview on CNBC Friday morning, both Costolo and Dorsey doubled down on this explanation. Dorsey said the company “has an extremely strong roadmap” and that when it comes to Twitter’s pace of rolling out new products and updates to existing services, “you’ll never see a greater cadence than now.”
Dorsey also said that the company is focused on making its product easier to use and enjoy by reducing “barriers to consumption.” He dodged a question on whether he’d stay on as permanent CEO.
The outgoing and incoming CEOs downplayed talk of Twitter being acquired by a larger firm like Google, and said they felt they could best maximize shareholder value by remaining independent.
If the reaction on Twitter is any gauge of these executives’ performances during the interview, the single most important takeaway was the extent of Jack Dorsey’s beard, which is significantly healthier than Twitter’s user growth:
I have to say Dorsey will not win a lot of credibility points from institutional investors by looking like Paul Bunyan or Rasputin…
— TED (@EpicureanDeal) June 12, 2015
The @twitter bird nests in @jack's beard http://t.co/dDONupSi7Fpic.twitter.com/ZtoKNAyrFg
— GQ Style (@GQStyle) June 12, 2015
if Jack Dorsey’s stupid beard is trending on Twitter, it makes obvious the service has no real depth or reach.
— Myles Udland (@MylesUdland) June 12, 2015