Twitter Employees ‘Shocked,’ Saddened by Dick Costolo’s Departure

When Dick Costolo took the stage in Twitter’s cafeteria in front of hundreds of employees on Thursday afternoon, there was little evidence that he was about to drop a bomb.

For the most part, employees had no idea Costolo, who has been battered and beaten in the press over the past six months for the company’s slow growth and recent earnings miss, was stepping down. The only subtle signal was that the company’s all-hands meeting, called Tea Time, was changed at the last minute from 10 am PT to 1 pm PT when the stock markets would be closed.

Costolo addressed the staff first, and others — like board member Peter Fenton and now interim CEO Jack Dorsey — followed after. Some executives, like product head Kevin Weil and head of global revenue Adam Bain, added some nice words about the boss. One employee said Dick seemed happy and light. Fenton even joked that the decision had nothing to do with Chris Sacca, the investor who started publicly critiquing the company earlier this month.

But still, the news stung, if only because it caught the majority of Twitter’s workforce completely off guard.

“Employees were definitely shocked,” one Twitter employee told Re/code. “He’s loved by all so I think there’s sadness all around.”

It certainly looked and felt that way on Twitter, where employees turned to tweet out support and gratitude for the CEO. The sharing was heavy enough that the hashtag #ThankYouDickC was actually trending in San Francisco. A few employees even tweeted photos of the crowd giving Costolo a standing ovation.

Costolo has always had a reputation for being a likable manager. He’s a fun person — a former comedian — and some people took that humor for a lack of seriousness, but people tended to respect him. That respect was on display Thursday.

There is some belief from employees that Dorsey, who says he will split his time running Twitter and Square until a permanent replacement can be found, may actually be the next man for the job. Multiple current employees told Re/code there’s a feeling within some circles in the company that Dorsey may be back for good.

Twitter has been criticized in the past for moving too slowly or too tentatively when it comes to evolving the product. Some believe that part of the issue is that, as a non-founder CEO, Costolo lacked some of the moral authority needed to make major changes to the Twitter product. Bringing a founder back to run the company might help Twitter push some of those ideas forward with more confidence.

Dorsey and Costolo said on a conference call Thursday that a hiring committee made up of Twitter board members will look for a replacement CEO, but there’s no timetable for that hire.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Steps Down, Jack Dorsey Returns as Interim CEO

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down from his role beginning July 1, and Twitter co-founder and current Square CEO Jack Dorsey will take over as Interim CEO.

Costolo, who has been on the hot seat for months, will remain on the company’s board, according to multiple filings submitted with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday. Dorsey and Costolo then spoke on a conference call Thursday afternoon to discuss the transition. Dorsey said the decision had nothing to do with the company’s performance. Costolo added that he has been talking with the board about this move since the fall.

“One thing I do want to make clear is that this transition is not the result of anything more than Dick deciding to move on from his role as CEO,” Dorsey said. “There is no connection with our near term results.”

Even so, Twitter and Costolo have been under the microscope since going public in late 2013, primarily dealing with user growth issues that seemed to imply the company had hit a plateau. Costolo also took flack for overseeing an ever evolving executive team at the company, which included the removal of COO Ali Rowghani, a new CFO, and multiple heads of product all in 2014.

Re/code asked Costolo about his job security multiple times since April, most recently at the annual Code Conference. He consistently dismissed the idea that he was at odds with the board, which Re/code reported in January was losing patience.

“I don’t worry about that at all,” he told Re/code in late April. “The board and I are completely in sync. Believe me, I don’t worry about that at all.”

The company has not yet named a permanent CEO replacement. Dorsey said that the search process “has not begun yet.” Board members Fenton, Peter Currie, and co-founder Ev Williams will lead the search committee, he added, and they will consider both internal and external candidates.

Dorsey will return to the helm of the company he ran in its earliest days. He will continue to work with Square. According to the filing outlining Dorsey’s employment: “Prior to your start date on July 1, 2015, we will develop and agree on a Conflict of Interest Policy as it pertains to your work with Square, Inc.” Dorsey said on the conference call that he would “split time” between the two companies for the immediate future.

Costolo made the announcement to company employees at Tea Time on Thursday, Twitter’s weekly all-hands meeting. Sources within the company say the meeting time was initially scheduled for 10 a.m., then bumped to 1 p.m., or after the markets closed.

Dick spoke to the staff followed by Twitter board member Peter Fenton and new CEO Dorsey. Very few members of Twitter’s top brass spoke during the meeting, these people said.

Twitter stock initially spiked almost eight percent on the news, but has lost most of those gains. It’s now up about three percent in after-hours trading.

http://recode.net

How Ugandan Youth Are Making Money with ICT for Agriculture

Uganda has the world’s youngest population with over 78 percent of its population below the age of 30. Though the country also has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, many of Uganda’s young adults have limited interest in pursuing careers in agriculture because they see it as a subsistence livelihood, or simply lack the agribusiness skills, finance and market awareness to make agriculture profitable.

Through the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Project, USAID/Uganda took a step toward reversing this perception by organizing a national youth agriculture event last September called Youth and Agriculture: Exploiting Opportunities – “Go for Gold.” Inspired by the event, five youth-led ICT companies banded together to form the limited liability company Akorion, which means “farmers” in Ateso (the language of the Teso subregion in Uganda).

Akorion

Akorion aims to provide up-to-date agricultural information and best practices via mobile technology which can be used to increase the productivity and competitiveness of smallholder farmers in Uganda. Akorion developed an ICT platform that serves as an input/output application. It works like this: Using their smartphone, the village agent collects a farmer’s records (bio and demographic data, production data, inputs demand, and product supply) and maps the cultivated land using GPS.

Through the smartphone, the village agent also provides extension services to farmers on topics such as better agronomic practices, weather forecasts, market prices, digital financial services such as savings, transactions and credit and crop insurance. The platform also acts as a virtual trading center with electronic networks connecting producers, buyers, sellers, input suppliers, exporters, crop insurance and financial institutions with Akorion, the managers of the data.

Impact

So far, Akorion has focused on digital profiling to provide access to financial services and crop insurance. With fourteen village agents, they have grown their client base to 1,200 farmers from the NALG Area Cooperative Enterprise (ACE) in Iganga and the Bukusu ACE in Manafwa. Both will grow maize and beans in the 2015 season with the help of a new loan of 1.2 billion Ugandan shillings, which was accessed through Akorion’s profiling service. They have also signed a contract with Ankole Coffee Processors, Ltd. in Ibanda and Kabarena Coffee Growers in Kapchorwa, bringing an additional 18 village agents and 1,083 farmers cultivating over 2,200 acres.

Using the soil sample training they received, the village agents will conduct soil testing along with digital profiling to encourage traceability of the coffee from “garden to cup.” Akorion will then provide the data to Savannah Commodities so that they can blend the appropriate fertilizer for the farms. Akorion will then distribute the fertilizer, thus earning a commission on both the testing of the soil and distribution. With the package of different services they offer, Akorian can earn up to $42 for each farmer they serve.

By the end of 2015, Akorion plans to build a base of 300 well-equipped village agents to create a client list of 36,000 farmers to whom they can deliver services, bringing in a projected revenue stream of $240,000. To do this, they are establishing commercial partnerships with agro-input companies such as Agrohao, Hanzou Chemicals, Balton, BrazAfric, Ensol, and Grow More Seed. They are also working with financial services institutions such as Uganda Development Bank, UAP Insurance, Jubilee and Lion insurance and Mobipay. Akorion plans to expand its client list of bankable farmers to 260,000 by 2017.

In doing so, they expect to employ 8,000 youth along the agriculture value chains they have targeted. Akorion is poised to change the image of agriculture among the youth of Uganda and prove to them that there is potential for expanded production and profits.

The Mystery Of Missing Flight MH370: Mathematician May Have Just Solved this! Read more

A mathematics professor may have solved the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared without trace last year with 239 people on board.

Conspiracy theorists have suggested various outlandish theories including the idea that the flight was abducted by aliens.

But the reality may be a little more prosaic, according to applied mathematician Dr. Goong Chen of Texas A&M University.

His computer models suggest that the flight entered a vertical dive over the Indian Ocean, entering the water cleanly and without breaking up.

The simulated crash solves some of the mysteries surrounding MH370 — such as the lack of debris and spilled oil on the surface.

Dr. Chen suggests that the plane’s body and wings sank rapidly — explaining the lack of an oil slick on the surface.

Dr. Chen says, “The true final moments of MH370 are likely to remain a mystery until someday when its black box is finally recovered and decoded.

“But forensics strongly supports that MH370 plunged into the ocean in a nosedive.”

Yahoo