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Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

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Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#11

Post by wingerlang »

prawn wrote: post #10
Dwolb wrote: post #3

This is a little weird. Jack Dorsey is not a majority owner of Twitter and so he can't do whatever the heck he wants. Most companies would ask the board for approval to issue more shares for its employees - this did not happen. So then the question is, 'why does Jack feel compelled to donate his shares more than any other Twitter shareholder?' One reason could be Jack is a philanthropist and believes in giving back t…

Doubt he's the only one who can see it. It's written up in many stories and most people using Twitter can see how much of a graveyard it can become at times. (It's the social network I use most, so I'd rather that weren't the case.) This could be purely a move about PR and legacy. In recent times we've seen Yahoo and then Microsoft make expensive moves in an attempt to gain relevance. I'm not sure it'd be the rank an…

> .. how much of a graveyard it can become at times

Could you expand on this? I don't use Twitter enough to know the subtleties of it.

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#12

Post by gsibble »

This is simply a tax move. Dorsey is going to pay hundreds of millions in capital gains taxes when Square goes public later this year. He gets to take this as a loss which he can write off against those taxes. It's essentially free. Great PR stunt but doesn't cost him a dime.

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#14

Post by eis »

gsibble wrote: post #12

This is simply a tax move. Dorsey is going to pay hundreds of millions in capital gains taxes when Square goes public later this year. He gets to take this as a loss which he can write off against those taxes. It's essentially free. Great PR stunt but doesn't cost him a dime.

Now if you could explain how $190 million in losses can save $190 million in taxes, that would be great. Hint: it doesn't work this way.

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#15

Post by onion2k »

Dwolb wrote: post #3

This is a little weird. Jack Dorsey is not a majority owner of Twitter and so he can't do whatever the heck he wants. Most companies would ask the board for approval to issue more shares for its employees - this did not happen. So then the question is, 'why does Jack feel compelled to donate his shares more than any other Twitter shareholder?' One reason could be Jack is a philanthropist and believes in giving back t…

One thing that's worth adding - Twitter as a corporation might be in trouble, but Twitter as a product is not. If the corporation fails then the product would be bought by Facebook/Google/Apple/etc and carry on for a very long time yet.

Twitter might be hard (impossible?) to successfully monetize to the point where it's actually profitable, but as a platform it still has a huge amount of value that lots of people would like to own. Platforms with millions of users never fail quickly.

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#16

Post by ponyous »

wingerlang wrote: post #11
prawn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubt he's the only one who can see it. It's written up in many stories and most people using Twitter can see how much of a graveyard it can become at times. (It's the social network I use most, so I'd rather that weren't the case.) This could be purely a move about PR and legacy. In recent times we've seen Yahoo and then Microsoft make expensive moves in an attempt to gain relevance. I'm not sure it'd be the rank an…

> .. how much of a graveyard it can become at times Could you expand on this? I don't use Twitter enough to know the subtleties of it.

For me it feels like graveyard when I search for a hashtag that interest me and all I see are promotions and links to other pages. I want to see actual discussions among people like me so I can participate.

Note: I don't truly understand how to use Twitter...

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#17

Post by wellsjohnston »

gsibble wrote: post #12

This is simply a tax move. Dorsey is going to pay hundreds of millions in capital gains taxes when Square goes public later this year. He gets to take this as a loss which he can write off against those taxes. It's essentially free. Great PR stunt but doesn't cost him a dime.

He doesn't get to take this as a loss though, he's giving it away. It would be a loss if he invested in Twitter and then sold at a lower price.

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#18

Post by hackaflocka »

To thrive more, Twitter needs to be made simpler and more irresistible. It doesn't need charity that amounts to a few drops in the ocean. I could be wrong on this but I seem to remember that in one quarter alone sometime back, Twitter created fresh stock in the amount of around $800 million to grant to employees. $190 million is but a fraction of that.

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#19

Post by afro88 »

onion2k wrote: post #15
Dwolb wrote: post #3

This is a little weird. Jack Dorsey is not a majority owner of Twitter and so he can't do whatever the heck he wants. Most companies would ask the board for approval to issue more shares for its employees - this did not happen. So then the question is, 'why does Jack feel compelled to donate his shares more than any other Twitter shareholder?' One reason could be Jack is a philanthropist and believes in giving back t…

One thing that's worth adding - Twitter as a corporation might be in trouble, but Twitter as a product is not. If the corporation fails then the product would be bought by Facebook/Google/Apple/etc and carry on for a very long time yet. Twitter might be hard (impossible?) to successfully monetize to the point where it's actually profitable, but as a platform it still has a huge amount of value that lots of people wou…

> Platforms with millions of users never fail quickly.

Yes they do. When a better product arrives that gains enough traction, users migrate very quickly. Myspace, Altavista, Aol etc.

Re: Jack Dorsey gives 1% Twitter stock to employee equity pool

#20

Post by mattmanser »

afro88 wrote: post #19
onion2k wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that's worth adding - Twitter as a corporation might be in trouble, but Twitter as a product is not. If the corporation fails then the product would be bought by Facebook/Google/Apple/etc and carry on for a very long time yet. Twitter might be hard (impossible?) to successfully monetize to the point where it's actually profitable, but as a platform it still has a huge amount of value that lots of people wou…

> Platforms with millions of users never fail quickly. Yes they do. When a better product arrives that gains enough traction, users migrate very quickly. Myspace, Altavista, Aol etc.

ICQ is a better example of how quickly people abandon communications platforms.

Everyone used to use ICQ.

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