Twitter Names Keith Coleman as Product Chief
December 01 2016 - 9:00PM
Dow Jones News
Twitter Inc. on Thursday acquired a small startup and
immediately installed its founder as its new product chief, filling
a crucial role that's been vacant for nearly a year.
Keith Coleman, the chief executive of social-networking app
maker Yes Inc. and a former Google product manager, will take over
as Twitter's vice president of product. He joins Twitter along with
six others from Yes, a two-year-old startup that makes apps
including event-planning service Frenzy.
A Twitter spokeswoman declined to disclose the deal price.
The hiring caps a turbulent year for Twitter, which is trying to
regain its footing under Chief Executive Jack Dorsey. A revolving
door of product chiefs and frequent strategy shifts over the years
has stunted Twitter's ability to evolve the service and appeal to
mainstream users.
Mr. Coleman is Twitter's sixth product chief since 2007 and
fourth since the company's initial public offering in November
2013. Before founding the little-known Yes, Mr. Coleman worked at
Alphabet Inc.'s Google, where he oversaw products like Gmail, Inbox
and Gchat.
Twitter, whose stock has fallen about 22% this year, has been
without a full-time product chief since January, when longtime
executive Kevin Weil decamped to run product for Facebook Inc.'s
photo-sharing app, Instagram. Mr. Weil was one of four top
executives to leave the company at the time. Until now, Twitter
technology chief Adam Messinger has been overseeing product.
Mr. Dorsey is under pressure to reinvigorate the company's
sluggish user growth, which has hovered between flat and 2% since
he took over as permanent CEO a little more than a year ago.
Investors grew more impatient this fall after companies including
Salesforce.com Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Alphabet Inc. considered
buying Twitter before backing away.
Soon after, Twitter said it would cut 9% of its workforce, shut
down its Vine video app and redirect its focus from driving growth
to delivering profits. Last month, Adam Bain, Twitter's
well-respected chief operating officer, said he would step down to
explore other opportunities. He will be replaced by Chief Financial
Officer Anthony Noto, who has been spearheading the social-media
company's efforts around live video.
Mr. Dorsey has made video central to Twitter's turnaround
effort, aiming to become a prime destination to watch live events.
Executives believe there are signs Twitter is turning a corner,
with increases in the number of daily users, in time spent on the
site, and in impressions over the past couple of quarters, people
familiar with the matter say.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2016 20:45 ET (01:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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