Jack Dorsey Gives A Third Of His Stock To Twitter Employees

The ultimate silver lining — Jack Dorsey gives a third of his shares back to Twitter employees

By Lulu Chang October 23, 2015

Twitter Founder — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Christmas is coming early for what’s left of Twitter’s workforce — those who survived the slashing of 8 percent of the employee base have now been rewarded with a third of CEO Jack Dorsey’s stock, valued at around $200 million. Talk about a silver lining.

In a tweet Thursday evening, the social media co-founder, ex-CEO, and current CEO announced that he would be reinvesting “directly in our people” in a tweet that has now been favorited over 5,000 times.

“I’d rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small,” he added afterwards. “I’m confident we can make Twitter big!”

As for me: I'd rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small. I'm confident we can make Twitter big! ✌️

— Jack (@jack) October 23, 2015

The last few weeks have been nothing short of tumultuous for the nine-year-old company. Following its whirlwind series of layoffs, the company proceeded to hire a number of big name players to lead Twitter into its next chapter, including Omid Kordestani, formerly Google’s highest-paid employee, to head its board, and New York Times editor-at-large Marcus Mabry to shape its new Moments feature.

Dorsey’s decision to dole out portions of his shares is a rare one, notes the Washington Post, though some experts speculate that the move is either an attempt to boost waning morale or to add to the pool of Twitter shares that can be used to compensate the workforce without negatively impacting the firm’s stock price.

The 7 million shares of the 22 million Dorsey is giving away represents around one percent of Twitter at large.

The CEO is no stranger to giving away his stock equity, however. Recently, Dorsey donated 40 million of his shares in that other company he runs and founded, Square, and back in 2013, Dorsey gave about 10 percent of his shares back to Square employees.

But don’t worry about the jack-of-all-trades’ financial situation — he’s more than taken care of. He still has about $400 million worth of Twitter stock in his back pocket, and let’s not forget Square’s most recent $1.6 billion valuation, based on recent SEC filings for the company’s impending IPO. With all that cash, there’s more than enough to go around.

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