Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey will give away one third of his Twitter stock to company’s employees, he tweeted on Thursday.
The move, worth $197 million as of July 28, is to “reinvest directly in our people,” Dorsey, who was named as the company’s permanent CEO earlier this month, said in a tweet on Thursday.
He also tweeted: “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!”
🐥⚡️ I'm giving ~1/3rd of my Twitter stock (exactly 1% of the company) to our employee equity pool to reinvest directly in our people.
— Jack (@jack) October 23, 2015
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 unusual move comes as Dorsey works to rebuild employee morale and confidence after a spate of high-level departures over the past several months. He announced last week that the company would lay off 336 employees, about 8% of its workforce, in an attempt to streamline Twitter’s products and teams.
Jack Dorsey wrote a letter to the employees titled “A more focused Twitter”. He mentioned in his letter, “We are doing this with utmost respect for each and every person. Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by providing generous exit packages and help finding a new job.”