Today: Twitter shares jump 8 percent, though co-founder Evan Williams and Tesla’s Elon Musk warn that Jack Dorsey’s dual-CEO role is not ideal. Also: Study finds Apple has stashed $181 billion overseas, and Pandora joins the concert-ticket business.
The lead: Dorsey’s situation ‘no ideal,’ but he’s the right pick, Evan Williams says
Twitter shares surged more than 8 percent on Wednesday, despite cautionary words from two Silicon Valley leaders on new CEO Jack Dorsey splitting his time as CEO of Square.
Calling the situation “not ideal,” Twitter co-founder Evan Williams nevertheless endorsed Dorsey as the right man for the job. “No one would say this is ideal that we would want anyone’s time split. But it didn’t change the fact that we still thought, despite that, he was the best choice,” he said Wednesday in a interview with Bloomberg TV.
Tesla Motors co-founder and CEO Elon Musk was lukewarm on the concept as well. “I wouldn’t recommend running two companies,” he said at a Vanity Fair conference in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg News. “It decreases your freedom a lot.” Musk would know — he keeps busy as CEO of Space X, as well as chairman of SolarCity.
Dorsey, one of Twitter’s co-founders, was named permanent CEO on Monday, after holding the interim title since June, when former CEO Dick Costolo was ousted.
In a blog post Monday, Williams — who was on Twitter’s CEO search committee — praised the pick of Dorsey, second CEO gig or not: “His connection to (Twitter’s) roots informs a depth of vision and authenticity of voice, which I’ve been excited to hear,” Williams wrote. “I honestly didn’t think we’d land on Jack when we started unless he could step away from Square. But ultimately, we decided it was worth it.”
Investors apparently think so as well. Twitter shares are up almost 18 percent over the past five days, although it’s still down almost 17 percent for the year. Twitter ended the day up 8.04 percent, or $2.22, to $29.84.
In other Twitter news, a Saudi prince and his investment firm increased their stake in the San Francisco company to more than 5 percent over the past six weeks, making them the company’s second-largest shareholders.
SV150 market report: Apple’s overseas cash, Pandora’s expansion, and Pure Storage’s IPO
An up and down day on Wall Street ended in positive territory Wednesday, with the major indexes all posting gains of at least 0.7 percent. While tech stocks largely gained, some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies ended the day with losses.
Apple slipped 0.48 percent, or 53 cents, to $110.78, as a report found the Cupertino tech giant is hoarding $181 billion in offshore accounts, where it’s avoiding an estimated $59 billion in U.S. taxes. Apple topped the list, though the study also named Cisco, Google, HP, Oracle and Intel as holding tens of billions of dollars apiece overseas. Meanwhile, Apple is said to be “its own worst enemy” as it continues to resist requests made by its court-appointed antitrust monitor. A hearing will be held next week to decide whether the monitor’s stay should be extended another two years.
Google parent company Alphabet slipped 0.24 percent, or $1.64, to $670, as it unveiled a new platform to speed up page-load times for news stories. The Mountain View company was also taken to task on Capitol Hill, where a Florida senator railed against its YouTube Kids app.
Facebook dipped 0.43 percent, or 40 cents, to $92.40, as it unveiled a new service to connect its users with home-repair help. The Menlo Park social network will partner with Seattle’s Pro.com to help people find contractors for home improvements.
Pandora slid 4.55 percent, or $1, to $20.98, as the Oakland-based Internet radio company branched out to the concert ticket-selling game, purchasing Ticketfly for $450 million. “We believe this acquisition closes the loop for Pandora by creating a one-stop-shop for artist discovery, marketing, and concert ticket sales,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst John Egbert told the Associated Press.
And Mountain View-based Pure Storage has a disappointing first day as a public company, falling 5.82 percent, or 99 cents, to $16.01. The flash data storage company priced its initial shares at $17, valued at about $425 million.
Silicon Valley tech stocks
Up: Intel, Cisco, HP, eBay, Gilead, Yahoo, Juniper, LinkedIn, Twitter, SunPower
Down: Apple, Alphabet, Oracle, Netflix, Facebook, Tesla, Pandora, GoPro
The SV150 index of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies: Up 11.64, or 0.72 percent, to 1,625.02.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Up 42.79, or 0.90 percent, to 4,791.15.
The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 122.10 or 0.73 percent, to 16,912.29.
And the widely watched Standard & Poor’s 500 index: Up 15.91, or 0.80 percent, to 1,995.83.
Sign up for the 60-Second Business Break newsletter at www.siliconvalley.com. Follow Mike Murphy on Twitter at twitter.com/mmmmurf
