• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 8, 2019

In a letter to Twitter's executive chairman, influential analyst and professors Scott Galloway makes an appeal to replace its current CEO Jack Dorsey, because of the social media platforms financial performance has significantly lagged is societal impact.

Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, returned as the company's CEO in 2015, and has helped stem its slide, but Galloway makes a case that he has been a "part-time" CEO who has been distracted by the fact that the majority of his wealth comes from his personal investment in Foursquare.

"Twitter has become an iconic brand and the global heartbeat for our information age. The only firms with the reach and influence of Twitter (Tencent, Facebook, and Google) register 17x, 24x, and 39x the market capitalization, respectively," Galloway, who also is a personal investor in Twitter writes, adding, "Greatness is in the agency of others, and many talented executives have left the firm. It is difficult to ask people to work evenings and weekends when the CEO works mornings (is part-time). The exodus has resulted in anemic product development that has stunted growth and monetization. The poor performance has been somewhat wallpapered over by President Trump. His decision to communicate and govern via 280 characters creates a sugar high that masks the underperformance of management, and will not last. Few people have benefited more from Donald Trump’s election than Jack Dorsey."

Citing 'fake accounts, GRU-sponsored trolls, algorithms that promote conspiracies and junk science, and inconsistent application of your terms of service," Galloway asserts that not only has Twitter's stock value underperformed but it "is dangerous. 

"The poor citizenship of Twitter is bad. What’s worse is Twitter’s malfeasance coupled with scant benefit to stakeholders. The platform is all the calories of big tech (poor citizenship, divisiveness, hate) without the great taste (stakeholder returns). At least tobacco stocks performed well."