By Michael Liedtke, Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --Twitter's lame-duck CEO Dick Costolo says he is leaving the company stocked with new features that will boost revenue and help make the short-messaging service useful to more people.
"We have things rolling out this fall that I am over the moon about and can't wait for people to see," Costolo said Tuesday during an appearance at a Bloomberg technology conference.
Twitter will have a different leader by the time those products appear because Costolo is ending his nearly five-year reign as CEO on July 1 as part of a shake-up announced last week. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is stepping in as interim CEO while the San Francisco company's board searches for a permanent replacement.
Without providing further details, Costolo said the upcoming features will create engaging experiences that appeal to broad audiences. He also indicated the new features will generate more advertising.
If Costolo's predictions pan out, it would address some of the problems that have caused many investors to sour on Twitter and contributed to the company's change in command. Twitter's stock has fallen by more than 30 percent since the late April release of a disappointing first-quarter earnings report.
Although Twitter has more than 300 million users, the service's growth has slowed in recent years largely because its system of showing bursts of often disjointed information has proven too confusing and tedious to many people coming back after they open accounts. The company also has an uninterrupted history of losses since Dorsey sent out the service's first tweet in March 2006.
Dorsey, who served as Twitter's CEO in its early years before being ousted in 2008, is believed to be interested in taking on the job again permanently.
Costolo, who will remain on Twitter's board, praised Dorsey for his "clarity of thinking" about the short-messaging service while stressing that the company intends to interview other candidates.
Costolo said the decision to search for a new CEO prompted Twitter's board to decide after a three-hour meeting that he should step aside next month to avoid distractions and speculation. If he had remained CEO while the board looked for his successor, Costolo said he would have been "walking around with a timer on his head. We just thought that was going to be ridiculous."
Twitter's next CEO will have the leeway to make changes, but "we like the strategy that is in place," Costolo said. The endorsement of Twitter's current plans echoed comments that both Costolo and Dorsey made last week after the company revealed the CEO switch.
Investors evidently would like to the company to pursue a different direction. Twitter's shares gained 15 cents to $34.82 on Monday, slightly below their price before Costolo's departure was announced.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More