Executive upheavel expected at Twitter, announcements on Monday: Recode

[BANGALORE] Social media power Twitter Inc plans to announce the departure of some major executives on Monday, technology news website Re/code reported on Sunday, citing sources.

Re/code said Twitter's media head, Katie Jacobs Stanton, product head, Kevin Weil, and the head of its engineering division, Alex Roetter, were all leaving the company.

It said that Jason Toff, head of Twitter's video streaming service Vine, may also depart, as would its business development leader, Jana Messerschmidt, who has expressed unwillingness to continue further.

Twitter plans to announce the departures on Monday, along with the recruitement of a new chief marketing officer, Re/code said.

Both Weil and Stanton, whose positions will be filled by interim appointments, have no immediate plans to join another company, although they are expected to, Re/code said.

While Stanton's departure is voluntary, Weil and Roetter's departure are expected to be positioned by Twitter as not so voluntary, Re/code said.

Twitter Chief Executive and co-founder Jack Dorsey has become the company's de facto product head, Re/code said.

More executive changes are expected in the future, including the appointment of a new public relations head and the appointment of a well-known media personality as part of the turnover on Twitter's board, Re/code said.

Twitter has come under increasing pressure to boost user growth and ad revenue. It had its slowest user growth last year - it now boasts just over 300 million users - and was eclipsed by photo-sharing app Instagram, owned by Facebook Inc, which surpassed 400 million users last year.

In an earnings conference call in October, CEO Dorsey spoke about "hiring and investing in talent" and the need for "bold rethinking."

Since then, Mr Dorsey has launched Moments - a product developed by Weil - which showcases Twitter's best tweets and content; laid off more than 300 employees; given back a third of his stock, about 1 percent, to employees; and hired former Google Inc executive Omid Kordestani as executive chairman.

Twitter could not be immediately reached for a comment outside regular business hours.

REUTERS