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Square Cash plugs its virtual card into Apple Pay
The Square Cash service added a "virtual debit card" feature back in September, and tonight during the Code Commerce event, CEO Jack Dorsey announced that it's integrating with Apple Pay. The virtual Visa debit card lets Square Cash users spend their balance anywhere Visa is accepted (legitimately), and starting today, its iPhone app can enable the card for use on Apple Pay too. If you're not using an iPhone or Apple Watch, Dorsey said that the company does have plans to support other platforms like Android Pay and Samsung Pay.
Twitter CEO apologizes for white supremacist promoted tweets
Earlier this week, Twitter rolled out new tools to help users combat abuse. That seemed to stir up a hornets' nest of white supremacists, as some Twitter users started noticing promoted tweets for those hate groups on their timelines. The company initially denied the veracity of those reports, but now CEO Jack Dorsey is offering up an apology and laying the blame on Twitter's automated approval systems. We made a mistake here and we apologize. Our automated system allowed an ad promoting hate. Against our policy. We did a retro and fixed! https://t.co/7gvycmzpsm — 🚶🏽jack (@jack) November 17, 2016
Twitter COO Adam Bain steps down
This afternoon Twitter's Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain announced in a series of tweets that he is leaving the company after six years "and a once-in-a-lifetime run." Listed second under CEO Jack Dorsey on Twitter's management page, Bain was in charge of building the company's advertising business. His departure comes after weeks of turmoil for the company, including rumors of a sale and hundreds of layoffs. A Bloomberg report in October signaled an internal struggle with CFO Anthony Noto taking more control, and he will replace Bain in the COO position.
Twitter will fire around 350 employees in hunt for profits
Twitter's not had a great time of it lately, with several would-be suitors deciding that they didn't want to buy the burgeoning social network anyway. Now, the company has announced its latest financial results and a restructuring plan in the hope of making itself profitable by 2017. The headline initiative will be to hack back nine percent of the company's workforce -- around 350 employees. It mirrors a similar move Dorsey made in October 2015 when he fired 336 people from the company in order to cut costs. Twitter expects that the layoffs will cost between $10 and $20 million to cover severance fees.
Bloomberg: Twitter plans to lay off several hundred employees
Last year when Jack Dorsey returned as CEO of Twitter, the company let go of more than 300 people, and a Bloomberg report indicates history will repeat itself this year. Citing anonymous sources, the outlet reports that while planning is fluid, a similarly-sized cut of about eight percent of the workforce is in the works and could occur before the company reports earnings Thursday.
Jack Dorsey calls Twitter the 'people's news network'
One of the reasons that Twitter has struggled with its investors is because nobody, not even its leaders, really knows what Twitter is for. In a memo sent around to employees, CEO Jack Dorsey seems to have stumbled across his vision for the embattled company. The note, which was sent to celebrate a year running the company, describes the site as "the people's news network," with a combination of "news and talk."
Reuters: Twitter seeks a sale decision by October 27th
Twitter's flat growth and falling profits made for a dim outlook until a few weeks ago when sources close to the social media platform said that Google, Salesforce and other tech luminaries were looking to buy it. The company's stock jumped 20 percent that day, and speculation has continued as to which would be the best buyer. But it seems time is of the essence: Twitter wants to conclude sale deliberations before October 27th, the day it reports its third quarter earnings, sources told Reuters.
Bloomberg: Twitter is locked in an internal battle over sale
Something is rotten in the state of Twitter, and it looks as if some of the blame should be laid at the feet of Jack Dorsey. At least, that's the sentiment of a lengthy report from Bloomberg that discusses the company's current malaise. According to sources, there's a three-person battle amongst the firm's leadership over what Twitter should be, and what its future holds. Dorsey reportedly wants to keep running Twitter as an independent company, while co-founder and board member Ev Williams wants to pursue a sale.
Twitter remains quiet about OurMine attack on its CEO's account
Early Saturday morning the team that has been breaking into high-profile social media accounts managed to temporarily hijack Twitter accounts for the CEOs of Yahoo and Twitter. Despite repeated requests from Engadget, Twitter has not commented on the incident and Jack Dorsey has not tweeted about it. Twitter's Trust & Info Security Officer Michael Coates did take time to refute a claim made by the OurMine hackers, after they posted a screenshot they claimed proves Vine has access to its users passwords.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's account was compromised by hackers
We suppose it was inevitable, but the latest hacking of a high-profile Twitter account has occurred, and it's hit the company's CEO Jack Dorsey. After the hackers posted a few benign video clips, a tweet went up at 2:50AM ET saying "Hey, its OurMine,we are testing your security" and linking to their website. That tweet was quickly deleted, but it also linked to a short Vine clip which we've embedded below, and identical tweets continued to replace it. Hackers using the name OurMine have previously taken over some social media accounts of other CEOs, like Google's Sundar Pichai (via a Quora account) and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, but going after this CEO on his own platform -- he sent the first public tweet -- seems new.
Twitter appoints BET CEO Debra Lee to Board of Directors
Following through on an earlier promise to diversify the company and better reflect its user base, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced today that BET CEO and Chairwoman Debra Lee will join the company's board of directors. Lee will also head up the company's Nominating/Governance committee.
Twitter's two new board members include one who actually tweets
This morning Twitter announced it's swapping out two board members for new faces. In the filing, it revealed that Peter Currie and Peter Chernin will step down after the annual meeting, to be replaced by Pepsi exec Hugh Johnston and UK entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox. Most notable about these additions is that in Fox, the board will have a director who is a prolific tweeter with over seventeen thousand posts on her account, while Hugh has... 2 (both posted today).
Twitter is keeping its 140-character limit
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared on The Today Show on Friday to celebrate the company's 10 anniversary. While there, Dorsey confirmed to host Matt Lauer that Twitter's 140-character limit will not be expanded to 10,000 characters, as he had previously suggested. "It's staying. It's a good constraint for us," Dorsey said. "It allows for of-the-moment brevity." Of course, Dorsey also once said Twitter "never planned to reorder timelines next week," just days before announcing the new algorithmic timeline that's now rolling out for everyone.
Pro-ISIS hackers threaten Facebook and Twitter over crackdowns
Surprise: ISIS isn't happy that social networks are taking down accounts sympathetic to its cause. Vocativ has obtained a video from a pro-ISIS hacking group that threatens retaliation against Facebook and Twitter for joining the US' campaign to fight online terrorist propaganda. The clip insists that the group will take 10 accounts for every one that Facebook or Twitter shuts down, and promises to eventually "delete" the sites entirely. There's also a segment where images of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey are riddled with bullet holes.
Twitter, Facebook support Apple in its fight with the FBI
As Apple CEO Tim Cook insists that his company should not be forced to help the FBI weaken security on an iPhone (Not sure why that matters? Get an explanation of the key issues here.), a few more companies have stepped forward in support. Yesterday Google CEO Sundar Pichai issued a carefully-worded statement, followed today by a statement from Facebook to USA Today, and a one-liner from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Facebook said that requirements to weaken security would create a "chilling precedent," while Dorsey simply said that he stands with Cook and Apple.
Visa reveals its stake in rival Square (updated)
Visa has purchased 10 percent of Square's trading shares according to documents seen by the WSJ. Square is best known for its smartphone-attached readers that make it easy for merchants (and even panhandlers) to accept credit cards. The company was started and is still headed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Though Square's Jack Dorsey revealed that Visa had taken a piece of it several years back, the credit card giant only recently revealed the amount of the stake. Visa recently launched Visa Developer, software that will help merchants accept Visa payments more easily.
Twitter says your timeline isn't changing (update: details)
Were you panicking at the thought of Twitter messing with your timeline order? Were you declaring #RIPTwitter and getting ready to move to Peach? Relax. Twitter chief Jack Dorsey has piped up to say that there's no truth to the rumors of a Facebook-like feed arriving next week. It was "never planned," he says. In fact, Dorsey adds that the company hopes to make Twitter "feel more, not less, live" -- he knows full well that you want that steady stream of updates.
Twitter CEO and founder gives a third of his stock to employees
"I'd rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small." That's how Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted about his decision to channel a huge chunk of his own stake in the social network back to the employee stock compensation pool. This would then be available for grants and help ameliorate some of the damage done when the company laid off a chunk of the team just last week. Oh yes, and Twitter plans to announce its quarterly earnings next week. [Image credit: AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLIS]
Square bets big on payments as it becomes a public company
It's a big week for Jack Dorsey in more ways than one. The new Twitter CEO's other company, the payment service Square, has filed for an initial public stock offering that's tentatively worth up to $275 million. It's not certain just when shares will be available. However, the move shows a belief that Square's hopes of reinventing the purchasing process (through everything from readers to food delivery) have legs. As it stands, investments might be necessary in the short term. While Square's bottom line is improving, it continues to lose money -- $77.6 million just in the first half of this year. Going public gives the firm more breathing room, and may sharpen its focus. After all, it's about to have the expectations of many, many people riding on its shoulders.
Twitter is cutting up to 336 jobs to 'streamline' its workforce
Those rumors of new Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey cutting jobs were unfortunately true. The social network has announced that it's axing up to 336 jobs, or about 8 percent of its total headcount. Dorsey argues that the move is necessary for a "streamlined" roadmap where Twitter focuses on fewer but bigger features, such as Moments. Most of the cuts will affect the engineering division, he says, since the company believes that a "smaller and nimbler" coding group would be more effective.
