Twitter's exodus of leading executives

Media head Katie Jacobs Stanton, product head Kevin Weil, the head of the engineering division, Alex Roetter, and HR head Brian Schipper will all leave the company, chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted.

At least one of those executives was fired, the New York Times reported. Jason Toff, who heads Twitter’s video streaming service, Vine, also tweeted that he was also leaving Twitter to join Google to work on virtual reality.

Twitter’s shares were down 5.3 per cent at $16.90 in pre-market trading.

“While we may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, we don’t see how the departure of the heads of three major business divisions can be viewed as a positive in the middle of an attempted business turnaround,” Stifel analysts wrote in a note.

The brokerage downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy”.

Twitter currently has just over 300 million users, but its user growth in 2015 was the slowest in its history.

Twitter may announce other executive changes, including the recruitment of a new chief marketing officer, according to a source familiar with the matter. The company will announce two new board members soon, the source added.