Twitter CEO Dick Costolo quits, co-founder & chairman Jack Dorsey becomes interim chief

Dick Costolo has stepped down from his position as CEO of Twitter in yet another top-deck shakeout at the microblogging company.

While the company did not specify the reason behind the development, several media reports have suggested that the move was a fallout of the social media giant's stalling user growth.

Moreover, Twitter was unable to attract advertisers at the same rate as its competitors, industry watchers say.

Meanwhile, co-founder Jack Dorsey has been appointed as the interim CEO, effective July 1. "There is no one better than Jack Dorsey to lead Twitter during this transition. He has a profound understanding of the product and Twitter's mission in the world as well as a great relationship with Twitter's leadership team. I am deeply appreciative of the confidence the board, the management team and the employees have placed in me over the years, and I look forward to supporting Twitter however I can going forward," said Costolo.

Dorsey was Twitter's CEO from May 2007 to October 2008 before being ousted by the management. He came back to the company in 2011 as the executive chairman. Costolo was associated with the company since the last six years.

Dorsey will also continue to serve as CEO of Square, the payments and financial services company he co-founded in 2009. "We have an exciting lineup of products and initiatives coming to market, and I look forward to continuing to execute our strategy while helping facilitate a smooth transition as the Board conducts its search," said Dorsey. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has also had a CEO stint with the company.

Meanwhile Twitter's board has formed a search committee led by lead independent director Peter Currie along with Peter Fenton and Evan Williams to search for a permanent CEO.

The committee will use the services of a leading executive search firm which will consider both internal and external candidates for the CEO position.

In its second quarter outlook for this year, Twitter expects revenue to be in the range of $470 million to $485 million and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $97 million to $102 million.

Twitter had recently acquired India's Zip-Dial Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd, which runs a missed call-based customer engagement platform ZipDial, for an undisclosed amount.