Report: Twitter Likely to Name Dorsey Permanent CEO

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) co-founder Jack Dorsey, who has been acting chief executive of the company for the past three months, is expected to be named permanent CEO as early as Thursday, technology news website Re/code reported, citing sources.

Snagging the top job at Twitter would be a triumphant return to the helm of the microblogging service that Dorsey helped invent but from which he was previously fired as CEO in 2008.

News reports have said that Dorsey, who at times has expressed interest in careers from fashion designer to New York City mayor, struggled to manage frequent outages during a period of exploding growth at the service.

Wall Street investors reacted positively, briefly sending Twitter's shares up as much as 6.8%. They settled back to a daily gain of 2.6% at mid-afternoon.

Twitter declined to comment on the report.

Dorsey will "apparently" continue to be CEO of mobile payments company Square, Re/code reported, a potential concern for investors. (http://on.recode.net/1WyyUw4)

"Dorsey is the right guy for the job, given his product background and founder status. The only question is, is this the right time for a dual CEO role?" said James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. "It's not the ideal situation, but it's a better scenario than no CEO."

Twitter's board is also likely to be shaken up, with previous CEO Dick Costolo leaving, Re/code reported.

Costolo stepped down as CEO in June, under mounting concerns about the company's slow user growth and seeming inability to attract advertisers at the same rate as competitors.

Dorsey, who took over as interim CEO on July 1, has not dismissed the idea of becoming permanent CEO of Twitter while staying at Square, but Twitter's board has said its next CEO needed to be focused solely on that company.

Other potential candidates mentioned for the top job at Twitter include Adam Bain, the company's president and head of revenue; Instagram founder Kevin Systrom; and Evan Williams, another co-founder of Twitter who was once its CEO and heads blogging website Medium.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru, Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Writing by Bill Rigby; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Richard Chang)