Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) Files An 8-K Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers
Item 5.02  Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.

Earlier this month, Anthony Noto was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”) and will continue as Chief Financial Officer until a successor is found.  As Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Noto will continue to lead the live content business and assume responsibility for Twitter’s revenue-generating organizations as well as global partnerships and business development and other functions.

In conjunction with Mr. Noto’s new role and additional responsibilities, on November 21, 2016, the Compensation Committee (the “Committee”) of Twitter’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) awarded Mr. Noto 940,000 restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and 325,000 performance-based restricted stock units (“PRSUs”) with a total compensation target of $12 million per year, in each case subject to the terms of Twitter’s 2013 Equity Incentive Plan.  The RSUs will vest over a period of four years, subject to Mr. Noto’s continued service through each vesting date, as follows: 50,000 RSUs will vest on each of February 1, May 1, August 1 and November 1, 2017; 53,750 RSUs will vest on each of February 1, May 1, August 1 and November 1, 2018; 50,000 RSUs will vest on each of February 1, May 1, August 1 and November 1, 2019; and 81,250 RSUs will vest on each of February 1, May 1, August 1 and November 1, 2020.

The PRSUs will be eligible to vest based upon Twitter’s achievement of certain performance targets over pre-determined performance periods.  The Board or the Committee will set the performance targets and the performance periods prior to the end of the first quarter of each period, as applicable, and will assess achievement against those performance targets in the first quarter after the end of the performance periods.  Assuming the achievement of target-level performance and subject to Mr. Noto’s continued service through each vesting date, 35,000 PRSUs, 90,000 PRSUs and 200,000 PRSUs may vest for performance in the fiscal years ending December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.  As with other executive officers, the Committee has phased in the PRSUs so that by 2019 at least 50% of Mr. Noto’s equity compensation is comprised of performance-based awards.

In order to align the terms with other executives, the Committee also approved an amendment to Mr. Noto’s Change of Control and Involuntary Termination Protection Policy Participation Agreement (the “Agreement”) to increase the lump sum severance payment from 50% of his annual base salary to 50% of his annual base salary in the event that Mr. Noto is involuntarily terminated for any reason (including by him for good reason) other than cause, death or disability, each as defined in the Agreement and not in the context of a change of control.

About Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR)

Twitter, Inc. (Twitter) offers products and services for users, advertisers, developers and platform and data partners. The Company’s service is live-live commentary, live connections, live conversations. Its products and services for users include Twitter, and Periscope and Vine. Its Twitter is a platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time. Its promoted products enable its advertisers to promote their brands, products and services, and extend the conversation around their advertising campaigns. Its promoted products consist of promoted tweets, promoted accounts and promoted trends. Its Fabric platform offers modular software development kits that help developers build applications, gives them mobile analytics, the ability to generate revenue through Twitter’s mobile-focused advertising exchange, MoPub. It offers subscription access to its public data feed for partners wishing to access data beyond its public application program interface (API).

Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) Recent Trading Information

Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) closed its last trading session down -0.41 at 18.22 with 10,693,395 shares trading hands.