Twitter CTO Quits as Social Network’s Execs Flee Company

Adam Messinger joins a long list of ex-Twitter leadership as he suddenly departed the troubled social media network.

Twitter CTO and newly-appointed Head of Product Adam Messinger joins Kevin Weil, as well as Katie Jacobs Stanton, Alex Roetter, and Brian Schipper, on a life raft off of Jack Dorsey’s beleaguered network. VP of Product and “rising star” Josh McFarland is following Messinger right through the door. Adam Bain, Twitter’s former COO, left a 4% stock drop in the wake of his own exit, just last month.

Twitter has been unsuccessful in its increasingly desperate attempts to sell itself to anyone from Google, to Disney, to Salesforce. All the while, it has been hemorrhaging employees at all levels as it attempts to remain viable in a market that is swiftly leaving it behind. Vine was perhaps the most notable casualty of Twitter’s steep decline under Dorsey in 2016, which has seen its stock price repeatedly find new lows.

Adam Messinger’s departure is a vicious blow to Twitter’s leadership. Dorsey has increasingly relied on Messinger during the tumultuous year, putting him in charge of the product’s engineering, development, and design. Messinger was also instrumental in the appointment of Keith Coleman as Product Leader.

According to an anonymous source for The New York Times, Messinger isn’t even leaving Twitter for a new opportunity. He’s just leaving.

Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both.