Twitter Taps Ex
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo celebrating the company's November IPO. The social network has hired Anthony Noto, the ex-Goldman banker who led the offering, as its new CFO. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Anthony Noto, who led the initial public offering of Twitter's shares while at Goldman Sachs Group in 2013, is joining the social network as its chief financial officer.
Twitter revealed the hire in an SEC filing Tuesday that disclosed Noto will replace current CFO Mike Gupta within the next 30 days. Gupta will remain with the company as senior vice president of strategic investments.
Noto, 46, worked at Goldman as an equity analyst departing the Wall Street firm in 2008 for a stint as the CFO of the National Football League, only to return to the investment bank's technology, media and telecom business, in 2010. He became co-head of the business about a year later and two years after that was the key player in beating out rivals at Morgan Stanley to land the coveted 'lead left' spot on Twitter's initial public offering.
Just a few months later, Noto left Goldman to join Philippe Laffont's technology-focused hedge fund Coatue Management for a brief stint that now ends with his new job at Twitter.
Noto, who will be paid $250,000 in salary and receive 1.5 million shares of Twitter stock that vest over two years along with a one-time option grant to buy 500,000 additional share, could help fill what has been perceived as a communication gap between Twitter and Wall Street.
When Chief Operating Officer Ali Rowghani resigned in June, the narrative around his departure focused on disappointing user growth and the lack of enthusiasm from Wall Street for the company's ability to monetize its user base at the same pace as rivals like Facebook.
Shares of Twitter rebounded in June after stumbling for much of the year, but remain down 33% in 2014. The stock gained 4.3% Tuesday after news of Noto's hire, to $42.73. According to FactSet the average analyst target price for the stock is $44.00.
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