Twitter CTO Adam Messinger steps down in latest top-level exit

Twitter Inc's chief technology officer (CTO) Adam Messinger said he is stepping down from his position at the US-based microblogging site.

Messinger announced the move in a tweet and said he will take time off.

Messinger became CTO in March 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he worked as the vice president of application development between April 2012 and March 2013. Before joining Twitter in 2011, he worked as the vice president of development at Oracle Corp.

As per media reports, engineering vice president Ed Ho will take over all product and engineering and report directly to chief executive Jack Dorsey.

The outflow of top executives from Twitter comes in the midst of media reports of a possible sale and layoffs.

Twitter has been making losses for a while now and its share prices have fallen 40% in the past 12 months.

The company had been exploring a deal to sell itself and reportedly held preliminary talks with several technology companies, including Google and Salesforce, but the potential suitors later backed out.

The social media company said in November that its chief operating officer Adam Bain was leaving the company. Twitter's India head Rishi Jaitly also left the firm in November after a four-year stint. Just two days after Jaitly resigned, the company's managing director for India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Parminder Singh, also stepped down.