Twitter Inc shares on Monday rose following reports an activist investor has taken a stake in the social media service and plans to push for changes.
Elliott Management Corp has taken a US$1 billion stake in the company, about 5 percent, and plans to nominate four directors to the board, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential.
The Wall Street Journal reported the plans on Saturday, also citing an unnamed person.
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Twitter has lagged behind other technology firms such as Facebook Inc and Google in terms of user growth and advertising revenue.
Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey left the company to start payments firm Square Inc, but returned in 2015. Now he splits his time between Square and Twitter.
Dorsey has also tweeted that he would spend three to six months in Africa this year, leading some to question who would be running Twitter.
Elliott has been in talks with Twitter’s board to discuss how the lack of a full-time chief executive has affected high-level executive retention and product innovations, the people said.
Twitter last month reported fourth-quarter user numbers that exceeded expectations, but profit still fell as expenses rose.
Twitter and other social media companies have been spending more to step up efforts to remove misinformation, abuse, hate speech and spam.
Twitter shares rose US$2.21, or nearly 7 percent, to US$35.41 on Monday.
Meanwhile, Twitter staff across the world were asked to work from home starting from Monday in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“We are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they’re able,” Twitter human resources chief Jennifer Christie said in a blog post on Monday. “Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us — and the world around us.”
Working from home would be mandatory for employees at the company’s offices in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan, Christie said.
Twitter last week announced the suspension of “non-critical” business travel and events.
Additional reporting by AFP
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