New Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal not to change course despite Jack Dorsey resignation

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Twitter Inc.’s new Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal promised to push projects through faster, but told investors they shouldn’t expect major changes to the company’s product or business growth strategy now that co-founder Jack Dorsey has stepped aside. Maintaining the status quo seemed to be the theme of Twitter’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, during which the company reported holiday sales and user growth that mostly met Wall Street expectations, but didn’t go much beyond that. Twitter also announced a $4 billion stock buyback, which helped buoy shares. The stock was up about 1% as the market opened in New York.

Revenue in the holiday quarter rose 22% to $1.57 billion, slightly less than analysts had predicted but suggesting the company has weathered recent changes by Apple Inc. on data privacy better than some larger rivals. Sales in the current period will be as much as $1.27 billion, Twitter said Thursday in a statement, while the average analyst projection was $1.26 billion. The company added 6 million new users in the fourth quarter, bringing average daily active users to 217 million. 

San Francisco-based Twitter is entering a new chapter in its history, following Dorsey’s unexpected resignation in November, and Agrawal, a former chief technology officer, taking the top job. Pressure is on Twitter to move faster in building new products, and the company set ambitious revenue and user growth goals at an analyst day last year to convince skeptical investors that it was serious about expanding its business. While Twitter has grown steadily for years, its stock gains have lagged behind industry peers.

Speaking on a call with analysts, Agrawal said he felt an “urgency” to execute on the company’s strategy.