Think Ali Rogwhani’s abrupt and unceremonious dismissal from Twitter this week was bad? Check out these brutal executive ousters.
When Ali Rogwhani resigned from the chief operating officer job at Twitter on Thursday, he announced it with a tweet, surely a first for a $22 billion company. But the real story of his stepping down well predated social media: Twitter's CEO, Dick Costolo, had kind words for him in public ( as well as absorbing his responsibilities), but Rowghani had actually been under heat for months following Twitter's poor user growth, the lagging stock price, and for a friendly Wall Street Journal story that called him Twitter's "Mr. Fix-It" and had Twitter employees describing him as "co-CEO."
Less than seven weeks later, he was gone. Internal rivalries, poor results, frowned-upon media coverage — these are all ingredients in the toxic stew that can lead to executive defenestration. Here are 15 of the most brutal corporate executions presented in chronological order.
Steve Jobs, Apple
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
When: May, 1985
Why: The Apple co-founder had helped introduce the personal computer to the masses, overseen a massively successful IPO, and was well on the way to global icon status when he was fired from the company he created at 30 years old. He was removed by the company's CEO, John Sculley, a Pepsi executive brought in by Jobs to run the company while he headed the Mac division.
Apple was floundering — several product launches had not impressed critics or customers — and Jobs' famously intense leadership style had alienated many of his underlings and fellow executives. Jobs described his ouster as "devastating" and like being punched in the stomach. Jobs would later found Pixar and the computer company NeXt, which Apple bought in 1996 when Jobs came back on as CEO. The rest is history.
Michael Ovitz, Disney
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
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