In a rather shocking announcement, Twitter CEO Evan Williams has asked COO Dick Costolo to step in as the new CEO of Twitter. While we’ve seen restructuring going on at major companies like HP and Yahoo, this seems a bit more benign and mostly a strategic move on @ev’s part.
As Twitter’s growth has exploded, Evan has been the front man. He has been at the helm as we’ve watched Twitter go from 1.25 million tweets/day to 90 million. Before that, it grew from a cryptic service no one understood, into a communications platform that most major brands use as a matter of course. Through all this, Ev admits that it hasn’t been easy:
The challenges of growing an organization so quickly are numerous. Growing big is not success, in itself. Success to us means meeting our potential as a profitable company that can retain its culture and user focus while having a positive impact on the world.
Twitter’s management team has grown along with the service. Dick Costolo has been Evan’s sidekick, a “critical leader in devising and executing our revenue efforts, while simultaneously and effectively making the trains run on time in the office.” It looks like Ev has decided that he would serve Twitter better by stepping down as CEO:
This led to a realization as we launched the new Twitter. I am most satisfied while pushing product direction. Building things is my passion, and I’ve never been more excited or optimistic about what we have to build.
Dick Costolo has a track record as a three-time successful CEO. He was co-founder and former CEO of Feedburner, which was later acquired by Google. It looks like Evan would rather work to keep up the vision of Twitter rather than deal with the business side of running the show. As of today, Ev will be “completely focused on product strategy” and says he is excited about where their “amazing team” will take Twitter next.
via Mashable, Twitter Blog