Bob Peck's Take On Why Dick Costolo Stepped Down

Although Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) shares didn’t react as positively as expected following the CEO change, Robert "Bob" Peck, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Internet analyst, believes this could be a catalyst for change at Twitter and hence a positive thing for Twitter’s shareholders.

Peck was on CNBC Friday to explain why he thinks so.

A Catalyst

"We think this (transition) is a catalyst for change," Peck began. "As far as the fundamentals and the core, you want to see faster product innovation, more engagement from its user base, better ad targeting – and we think whoever comes in here next will implement that and make that happen."

The Reason: Lack Of Product Cadence

On why this transition took place, Peck said, "I think, really at the end of the day, it was a lack of product cadence, iteration. The points that Chris Sacca made in his brilliant post last week, when you read through all his suggestions you said, ‘These are all fantastic ideas. Why hasn’t this happened three years ago, let alone a year ago?’"

Related Link: Dick Costolo: "It Was The Right Time" To Step Down

Short-Term Negative, Long-Term Optimistic

Peck was asked if in the short-term he is negative on Twitter. He replied, "As a part of our note today, we talked about the trends we can see aren’t going that well. Anthony Noto (Twitter CFO) updated guidance last night saying the trends haven’t improved.

"So, I think in the short-term there is a user problem, there’s an engagement problem, there’s an ad targeting problem. But longer-term, we are actually very optimistic. All the points that Chris Sacca makes in that post shows you how much optionality, how much opportunity there is here with this platform,” Peck said.

Image Credit: By Financial Times (Dick Costolo, Gillian Tett) [ CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons