() — Following the mass layoffs at Twitter, the social network’s co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, has apologized for growing the company “too fast.”
Dorsey tweeted on Saturday: “People on Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize that many are angry with me. I am responsible for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the size of the company too fast. I apologize for that.”
Dorsey added: “I am grateful and love everyone who has worked on Twitter. I don’t expect him to be mutual right now…or ever…and I get it.”
Twitter on Friday laid off thousands of employees across the company, in a severe round of cost-cutting that could upend the way one of the world’s most influential social networks operates, a week after it was acquired by the billionaire. Elon Musk.
reported this week that after Dorsey resigned from the company’s board earlier this year, he said he will stay involved with the social platform after Elon Musk acquires it.
Dorsey transferred his more than 18 million shares in Twitter (a stake of about 2.4%) to the new company owned by Musk as an equity investor, instead of receiving a cash payment, according to a securities presentation on Thursday.
The transfer means that Dorsey effectively contributed just under $1 billion to Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter. He also makes him one of the biggest investors in the new company, behind Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and the Qatar Investment Authority.
A multi-million dollar bromance
Dorsey and Musk have long had a multimillion-dollar bromance.
In 2020, Dorsey called Musk at an employee conference and asked for advice on how to improve Twitter. Later that year, Musk defended Dorsey when facing pressure from an activist investor and said on Twitter: “I support @Jack as CEO of Twitter. He has a good heart.”
After Telsa’s CEO initially agreed to buy Twitter in April, Dorsey tweeted that he “doesn’t think anyone should own or run Twitter,” explaining that he believed it should be a public good. “However, to solve the problem of being a company, Elon is the unique solution that I trust,” he added.
Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO last November and stepped down from the board of directors in May. He has publicly criticized the company’s former board of directors and has also privately questioned the company’s future.
In a text message exchange with Musk in March, after the world’s richest man racked up a huge Twitter engagement but before announcing it publicly, Dorsey said: “A new platform is needed. It can’t be a company. This is why I left.” Musk responded by asking what the platform should look like. Dorsey explained that it should be “an open source protocol” and not rely on “an advertising model,” as Twitter currently does.
Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
