By Kuldip K. Ambastha
The stock of Twitter, Inc. (TWTR), a microblogging and social networking technology (tech) platform, delivered negative returns for each day of this past trading week, as the table here shows. On Monday, November 29, 2021, Jack Dorsey announced that he would step down as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Twitter. [He will stay in the CEO position at Square, Inc. (SQ), soon to be rebranded as Block (SQ) to reflect its expansion from seller-focused commerce solutions into other areas including blockchain and cryptocurrency.] The Twitter announcement by Jack Dorsey was unexpected, and thus caught everyone by surprise. The Twitter CEO exit was effective immediately upon announcement, and likely was the main cause of the negative returns seen for the past trading week.
Parag Agrawal, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Twitter and a Ph.D. alumnus of Stanford University’s Computer Science program, will be taking over as CEO of Twitter. He is now the youngest CEO of a company included in the S&P 500 Index. Prominent tech sector advocate and investment manager Cathie Wood used the leadership transition news to buy approximately $49 million worth of shares in Twitter on behalf of her investment firm ARK Investment Management LLC’s various exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
On Tuesday, November 30, 2021, Twitter’s corporate blog mentioned a significant and controversial change related to the platform’s media sharing policy. Going forward, private individuals depicted in media content must give consent before users can share the relevant media items on Twitter. If this new policy is strictly enforced, Twitter will be dramatically different in the future. Will Cathie Wood’s contrarian confidence in Twitter be vindicated over time? Stay tuned.
Keywords – Twitter, Inc., Twitter, TWTR, Square, Inc., Square, Block, SQ, ARK Investment Management LLC, ARK Invest, ARK, Jack Dorsey, Parag Agrawal, Cathie Wood, technology, tech, S&P 500 Index, S&P 500.
Disclosure – The principals and clients of Ambastha Financial LLC have no positions in TWTR, SQ, or the ETFs of ARK Investment Management LLC.
Disclaimer – No recommendations are being made via this post. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. As an investor, you should do your own research and seek professional advice from a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA). You can lose money by investing in stocks and other instruments. Ambastha Financial LLC does not assume any responsibility (legal or otherwise) for any losses that may occur as a result of actions taken based on this post. All content copyrighted © 2021 – Ambastha Financial LLC.
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