Twitter's Jack Dorsey Pledges $1 Billion to Charity, Including Coronavirus Relief
April 07 2020 - 8:32PM
Dow Jones News
By Peter Rudegeair
Twitter Inc. co-founder and Chief Executive Jack Dorsey has
pledged to set aside $1 billion to fund charitable causes starting
with relief efforts toward the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Dorsey on Tuesday said the money would come from his stake
in financial-tech company Square Inc., which he also co-founded and
runs. The amount, he said via Twitter, represents about 28% of his
wealth.
Mr. Dorsey said he would move around 19.8 million shares of
Square to an entity called Start Small LLC, which would disburse
the money. After focusing on dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak,
Mr. Dorsey said, his money will go toward supporting other causes
such as girls' health and education and universal basic income.
Mr. Dorsey's pledge is one of the largest individual financial
commitments a chief executive has announced during the coronavirus
pandemic and comes as many companies also have pledged funds to
help deal with the fallout from the Covid-19 crisis.
Mr. Dorsey, who owns about 2% of Twitter stock, according to
FactSet, said he was donating shares from Square, because his
holding in the financial-services firm is larger. At current market
prices, Mr. Dorsey's stake in Square is valued at a little under $3
billion, based on the amount of class B shares he reported having
in April 2019.
"The impact this money will have should benefit both companies
over the long-term because it's helping the people we want to
serve," he said in a series of tweets. "I hope this inspires others
to do something similar, " he said.
The broader market slump from the continuing health crisis has
dented Mr. Dorsey's net worth. Shares in both Twitter and Square
have slumped in recent weeks.
Twitter last month warned its financial performance would fall
short in the quarter because the spread of the coronavirus has
depressed advertising spending, even as users have flocked to the
social-media site. Twitter's stock is down around 20% in the last
month.
Square's stock has slid around 40% since the end of February.
The payments company said on March 24 that the volume of payments
it processed for its small-business customers over the previous 10
days fell 25% from a year earlier, as it cited the impact of the
coronavirus.
Mr. Dorsey has built a reputation for eccentricities that
sometimes have raised eyebrows among investors. Last year, he said
he would spend part of this year working from Africa. Last month,
amid a bruising battle with activist hedge fund Elliott Management
Corp. that was pushing for his ouster at Twitter, he said he was
reconsidering the plan because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The two
parties struck a truce days later that allowed Mr. Dorsey to retain
his dual-CEO positions.
Write to Peter Rudegeair at Peter.Rudegeair@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 07, 2020 20:17 ET (00:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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