Social networking site Twitter has appointed former Google executive Omid Kordestani as its chairman, in hopes that he would support CEO Jack Dorsey to turn around the financially struggling company.
Twitter on Wednesday named Kordestani as its executive chairman. The company’s CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the decision, saying that Kordestani is a proven and experienced leader who will coach him and help recruit the best people to Twitter.
51-year-old Kordestani, who previously also worked for companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Netscape, said he’s excited to work with Dorsey and Twitter’s board.
“It’s rare you get to be at a company with an amazing business that’s also transforming the world,” Kordestani tweeted. “I’ve had good fortune to be at three: Netscape, @google, and now @twitter.”
Kordestani joined Google in 1999 and served the company for 10 years. After a few years away, during which he was an adviser to the CEO, he returned full-time in October 2014 as Google’s chief business officer. He became a senior adviser in August, helping the company through its rebranding as Alphabet Inc.
Restructuring Twitter
Kordestani’s extensive sales experience at Google would prove a good complement to Dorsey’s product knowledge, analysts said.
The news about the appointment came a day after Twitter announced company-wide layoffs as part of its efforts to restructure its business model and turn the financially struggling company into a profit-making entity.
Twitter announced on Tuesday that it was cutting 336 jobs, about 8 percent of the company’s workforce of 4,100 people.
The San Fransisco-based firm has been facing an array of problems such as slowing user growth and a stream of financial losses. It has been unable to turn a profit in its nine-year history, and has lost nearly $2 billion (1.75 billion euros) since it was started.
The networking site is also facing increasing competition from other social services such as Snapchat and Facebook’s WhatsApp.
As part of its revival plan, Twitter last week unveiled a new feature called “Moments” that packages commentary, video and photos about major events that have captured people’s attention.
sri/uhe (AP, AFP, Reuters)
