Social Media

Twitter adds ex-Facebook tech chief to board of directors

Twitter names Bret Taylor to board
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Twitter names Bret Taylor to board

In its effort to reignite growth, Twitter named ex-Facebook technology chief Bret Taylor to its board, adding a director who started multiple internet companies and has worked in the industry for 13 years.

Taylor, who is currently CEO of Quip, a software business he co-founded in 2012, joins the class of directors whose term expires at next year's annual meeting, the San Francisco-based company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing.

Prior to Quip, Taylor spent three years of Facebook through the acquisition of FriendFeed, a social network that he helped start. Before that he spent four years at Google, where he helped create Google Maps.

Twitter is desperate to recapture the excitement of consumers and investors. Disappointing user growth has pushed the stock down by more than half in the past year and put pressure on co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey to rekindle some of the company's entrepreneurial spirit.

There's plenty of overlap between Twitter and Quip already. Both companies are backed by Benchmark, and Peter Fenton, a partner at the venture firm, is on the boards of both. Benchmark and Quip are located in the same building in San Francisco's mid-Market neighborhood, just blocks away from Twitter's headquarters.

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