Twitter’s stock shed 56 cents, or 3 percent, to $17.28 in afternoon trading on Jan. 25. The shares have plunged by 52 percent since Dorsey became interim CEO last July, leaving them well below their price of $26 when they were sold in an initial public offering in November 2013.
The downturn reflects concerns that Twitter isn’t going to get much bigger than it is now, after a long streak of torrid growth in its early years. Twitter’s active users grew from 308 million in March to 320 million in September, a measly gain compared to the much larger Facebook, which added 104 million users during the same span. Facebook has more than 1.5 billion active users.
Twitter is trying to make its service more appealing with a feature called “Moments” that compiles photos, video, and messages about big news events. Twitter also is considering expanding the restrictions on tweets beyond the 140-character limit that has defined the service since its debut.
Now, Twitter’s board appears ready to undergo a makeover that Dorsey has been hinting would happen.
Citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported Twitter is about to name two new directors, including a well-known media executive, to its eight-member board. It’s not clear which of Twitter’s current directors will leave.
Twitter last year named a former Google executive, Omid Kordestani, as its executive chairman.
Although the changes will probably increase the turmoil within Twitter, Gartner Inc. analyst Brian Blau believes they’re necessary.
“Losing a pretty significant chunk of their management team should open the door to even more changes,” Blau said. “This is a signal that they are planning to do something different, and that could be good. It’s pretty obvious that something is not working there.”
