Twitter Directors Who Don’t Tweet Must Quit: Analyst

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Twitter’s CEO search, which has now lasted over 100 days, has become an epic story in itself. Prospective candidates were the focus until now, but now the conversation is shifting to people in charge of hiring the new CEO. Suntrust analyst Robert Peck puts the blame for the prolonged CEO search on the company’s board.

Dorsey the obvious choice

In a note to investors, Peck offered an interesting strategy for the renewal of the board. The analyst noted that board members should engage in using the product, considering the firm is in a turnaround process. Peck added that the board members with a substantial amount of the company’s shares are more likely to work towards the company’s interest.

More interestingly in the note, Peck showed the number of shares owned by each member of the board and the number of times they have tweeted since joining the service. Of all the board members, two directors have made little use of Twitter, including Peter Currie (a member of the search committee as well), who has tweeted only 98 times. The other one is Marjorie Scardino, who has only sent out eight tweets. In her Twitter bio, the former Pearson CEO states that she is still just a Twitter follower.

Explaining his rationale for looking at tweet counts, Peck said “While we know that tweets are not a perfect representation of engagement, we do think it is a fair analog and is instrumental in not only understanding the current product but also understanding where the product needs to evolve.”,

How Twitter’s board can be changed

Peck is not alone in asking for an overhaul of Twitter’s board. Last week, Twitter investor Chris Sacca also argued that the board is to be blamed for the prolonged search. Twitter’s board needs to be refreshed and should be comprised of people who have “actual skin in the game,” Sacca said,

Twitter has been functioning without a permanent CEO for more than 100 days now. Jack Dorsey, who is presently leading the company as its interim CEO, is seen as the strongest contender for the position. Peck too refers to Dorsey as the “the most logical choice.”

At around 10 a.m. Eastern, Twitter shares were up 1.23% at $27.17. Year to date, the stock is down by over 24%, while in the last year, shares are down by over 48%.

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