Twitter CEO shares $200 million with employees

Twitter's new chief executive officer, Jack Dorsey, said he will give one-third of his shares in the firm to employees, in a move to win staff minds and hearts.

Dorsey apparently aims to boost employee morale after his decision to cut eight percent of the workforce. Last week, the San Francisco-based company announced that it would lay off 336 workers as part of a plan to turn around the ailing social network.

“I would rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small," Dorsey said in a tweet on Friday. “I'm confident we can make Twitter big!"

The shares that Dorsey will give are worth about $200 million, or one percent of the company. Dorsey's total shares are worth $640 million, according to FactSet. Twitter did not comment further on the decision.

Despite its ubiquity, the popular social networking and messaging service has been plagued by a host of financial and management problems lately, characterized by slowed growth and a declining user base.

Twitter reported the number of monthly active users increased by only 1%, or about 2 million, to 304m compared with Q1, its slowest growth rate ever. Several senior executives have left the company this year, most notably the CEO.