Twitter’s 2 toppers talk trash

TWITTER is all about characters, but these two characters did more damage to the stock than any scathing hashtag could.

Instead of Twitter’s Interim CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey and CFO Anthony No to taking a victory lap after posting much betterthanexpected numbers and raising the company’s fullyear sales guidance Tuesday — sending its stock up more than 12 percent in early afterhours trading — they trashed the joint.

By the time the interim leader and CFO got on the earnings call with analysts, their unusually harsh comments about the company whipsawed the stock down13 percent later in the same afterhours session.

I’m not sure shareholders were looking for this type of leadership when the company replaced Dick Costolo with Dorsey.

Most successful Silicon Valley startups have been turned from fratboy party houses to very successful longterm investments under the leadership of an “adult” or baby sitter.

The problem is, in pushing out Costolo, Twitter let its adult go.

Dorsey’s behavior is even odder because he — in full bohemian beard — had just profusely praised Twitter’s direction and products on June 12 when announcing the leadership change.

Or is there something else going on here?

One theory as to why executives would talk down their company is that the conduct of Dorsey and Noto almost seemed to be driven by the desire to knock down the stock so as to get options packages later on based on the depressed share price.

Or maybe to put the stock on hold until Dorsey executes his IPO plans for Square, of which he is also CEO. Sound cynical? You bet. Silicon Valley has become the land of the slick narcissistic hustlers, like Wall Street of the 1980s. Not all are greedy beyond belief, but don’t kid yourself either.

Look no further than all the Silicon Valley support for bitcoin, the Tinkertoy pretend currency that is, um, digital, as evidence of the hucksterism rampant in the Bay Area.

Perhaps all Twitter needs is a non-interim adult to keep the kids in line.