Twitter CEO gives up $200M in stock for company employees

Source: AP

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After laying off more than 300 workers, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is trying to lift the spirits of the remaining employees by giving them 6.8 million shares of the stock he owns in the online messaging service.

Dorsey is giving up the stock, currently worth more than $200 million, so Twitter can award the shares to its employees, according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The gesture comes a week after Dorsey laid off 8 percent of Twitter's workforce in an effort to make the company profitable for the first time in its nine-year history. The gift represents nearly one-third of the stock Dorsey owns in the San Francisco company.

"I'd rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small," Dorsey tweeted about surrendering some of his stock. "I'm confident we can make Twitter big!"

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FILE - In this April 5, 2013 file photo, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey answers a question during the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis. According to a Friday, Oct. 23, 2015 regulatory filing, Dorsey is relinquishing stock worth more than $200 million so the messaging service can award the shares to its employees. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

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