Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey To Give One-Third Of His Stock To Employees

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey is giving a third of his stock in the company, about 1 percent, to the employee equity pool, Dorsey announced on his Twitter account late Thursday.

The move, which is worth $197 million as of July 28, according to Reuters, will help "reinvest directly in our people," he said. Dorsey, who owns about 3.2 percent stake in the social media company, was named its permanent CEO earlier this month.

Dorsey’s shares will go into a staff pool from which employees are rewarded depending on performance and promotions, the Financial Times reported.

“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!” said the Twitter co-founder, who is also the CEO and stakeholder of payments services start-up Square Inc.

Twitter has seen big changes after a recent round of layoffs and a spate of high-level exits over the past several months. The unusual move comes as Dorsey works to boost morale and transform the company, according to reports.

Former Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said he owns a 4 percent stake in Twitter, making him the company's third-biggest individual shareholder, according to Reuters.

Twitter had appointed Dorsey as interim chief executive in July. The previous CEO Dick Costello stepped down over investor concerns regarding Twitter’s slow user growth.