Early Twitter investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal apparently spent the weekend changing his mind about whether Jack Dorsey should stay on as the company’s permanent CEO. Dorsey is set to fill in on an interim basis for outgoing CEO Dick Costolo, who’s leaving the post July 1.
The Saudi billionaire, who owns a roughly 5% stake in Twitter, told the Financial Times Sunday that the company (TWTR) should seek out someone new to take over the chief executive role full-time. He added that Dorsey should focus on his current job as CEO of mobile payments startup Square.
“Jack has another company called Square which requires a lot of attention and a full-time job round there. I believe and trust that Jack Dorsey is there on a temporary basis,” Prince Alwaleed told FT, adding that the new Twitter CEO should have a background in marketing in order to help grow the company’s user base.
However, on Monday morning, the prince reversed course in a statement he sent to Reuters that offered his full support for Dorsey staying on permanently as Twitter’s CEO. In the statement, Prince Alwaleed said he knows Dorsey well and that the Twitter co-founder would offer “needed continuity” as CEO.
“And I will add now that should Mr. Dorsey wish to take on the CEO role, I would support him,” Prince Alwaleed told Reuters.
That’s quite the reversal of opinion in about 24 hours.