Twitter co-founder Dorsey returns to spearhead product development

Five years after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey began programming the microblogging platform and roughly three years after Chairman Evan Williams pushed him out of the company, Dorsey is returning to the Twitter ranks to lead product development. "Today I'm thrilled to get back to work at Twitter leading product as Executive Chairman," Dorsey tweeted Monday. Dorsey also confirmed he will remain as CEO of Square, the mobile payments processing startup he co-founded in 2009--he recently stated the firm now processes over $1 million in transactions each day.

Business Insider reports that during negotiations to bring Dorsey back to the Twitter fold, the company toyed with the idea of installing him as CEO, but its board eventually decided to retain current CEO Dick Costolo and put Dorsey in charge of product instead.Costolo assumed the Twitter helm in October 2010 after Williams resigned as CEO--at that time, Williams stated he planned to focus on the startup's product strategy efforts. "I am most satisfied while pushing product direction," Williams wrote on the Twitter Blog. "Building things is my passion, and I've never been more excited or optimistic about what we have to build." Last month, Business Insider reported that while Williams remains involved with Twitter at the board level, he is otherwise absent from its day-to-day business.

Twitter now boasts over 200 million users worldwide. Mobile tweets now make up over 40 percent of all Twitter posts, the firm said earlier this year, adding that 50 percent of all active Twitter users are also active on mobile.

For more:
- read this Business Insider article

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