Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who endorsed Elon Musk buying the company, has issued an apology after nearly half of its employees were laid off this week.
“Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment,” he tweeted Saturday morning. “I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.”
He went on in a subsequent tweet: “I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment…or ever…and I understand.”
Dorsey, the current CEO of payments app Square, gave Musk his approval back in April when he initially struck a deal to take the company private for $54.20 per share.
“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company,” Dorsey tweeted the day the sale was approved. “Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust.”
During Musk’s ensuing legal battle with the company, text messages revealed that Dorsey had pushed to get Musk on the company’s board. In Nov. 2021, Dorsey announced that he was stepping down as CEO and would remain on the board until the following year. He officially cut ties at the shareholders’ meeting on May 25, 2022, meaning that none of Twitter’s co-founders have a stake in the company any longer.
“Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders,” Musk wrote in April.
Dorsey replied, “It’s consistently been the dysfunction of the company.”
On Friday, Twitter sued Musk for failing to give the fired employees sufficient notice. Among the reported 3,700 employees who lost their jobs were immediate past CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett, and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. Musk also disbanded Twitter’s board and installed himself as its sole member.
