Twitter Brings In Bret Taylor To Drive Product Innovation

Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) recently appointed Bret Taylor to its board in yet another instance of management reshuffle. This social media veteran is expected to boost the company’s product development initiatives to revive stagnating growth.

Taylor has been serving as the CEO of the startup, Quip which he had co-founded in 2012. Prior to that, Taylor held the roles of chief technology officer at Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and group product manager at Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google. Taylor was also a key member in co-creation of Google Maps.

A Twitter executive stated "Bret brings to our Board a great mind for consumer products and technologies that will be invaluable to the company as we execute our plans for 2016 and beyond. His skills also complement those of our other recent Board additions, who bring expertise in finance, media, and entrepreneurship."

The move should have been well received. But that has not been the case given the company’s recent performance. Over the last few months, not only has the company been underperforming the market but has also lost a number of its high profile executives.This makes analysts much more apprehensive about the company’s future growth.

TWITTER INC Price and Consensus

TWITTER INC Price and Consensus | TWITTER INC Quote

Twitter, since the return of Jack Dorsey as the CEO, has been undergoing a major product and management overhaul aimed at countering its sluggish user growth and monetization woes (not to forget that it is still not making profits). Under such a circumstance, the addition of so many new members in leading roles is definitely escalating concerns, more so, when peers like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are doing quite well. All this even led to rumors Twitter might have to look for appropriate buyers.

At present, Twitter carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock worth considering is NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).