Why is Twitter’s Jack Dorsey leaving the company?

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced today that he’s planning to leave the company later this year. While few would argue his role was sufficient, the timing seems particularly confusing.

Does this mean a broader shake-up in the company’s management is afoot? After all, Dorsey’s long-time rival, Google’s co-founder Larry Page, announced in November that he’s resigning as CEO of Alphabet, the company he co-founded. Which raises the question: What’s happening?

Put another way: With new CEOs at Google and Twitter, Silicon Valley’s biggest titans could be signaling that they want to take their businesses in new directions.

Take Big Tech itself. Facebook’s business has slowed in the US and Europe since its 2016 IPO, prompting the company to invest even more heavily in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and virtual reality production.

On the other hand, critics have accused Facebook of exacerbating fake news problems by skirting censorship laws in dozens of countries.

Meanwhile, Amazon has become a significant threat to Facebook and Google through its artificial intelligence research (and, most recently, the introduction of a smorgasbord of new features and apps). And Apple is muscling into Google’s market with an expanding slate of cloud-based services.

Despite all that, Larry Page remains CEO of Alphabet, the company he co-founded. The timing of that resignation, along with Dorsey’s plan to depart Twitter, has fueled investor fears that the company could face shake-ups of its own.

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