Twitter gets new executive chairman from Google ranks

Twitter announced Wednesday that it had named Google's former chief business officer Omid Kordestani as its executive chairman, in a further shakeup of its top ranks.

Kordestani's appointment comes a week after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the post of chief executive on a permanent basis with the struggling messaging platform seeking to revive its growth.

Kordestani joined Google in 1999, and according to his official page at the search giant, "brought Google to profitability in record time, generating more than $10 billion in revenue in 2006."

As Google's chief business officer since 2014, he oversaw all revenue and customer operations, as well as marketing and partnerships.

In a tweet, the Iranian-American Kordestani said: "It's rare you get to be at a company with an amazing business that's also transforming the world."

Dorsey tweeted that "Omid is a proven & experienced leader, who will directly help & coach me and our leadership, and help us recruit the best folks to Twitter."

Twitter said Tuesday it was slashing eight percent of its workforce as Dorsey outlined his "roadmap" to boost users and revenues at the money-losing messaging platform.

In a letter to employees, Dorsey said his team is working "to produce a streamlined roadmap" for Twitter and its other services including video-sharing platforms Vine and Periscope.

"The roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest impact," he said in the letter. "The roadmap is also a plan to change how we work, and what we need to do that work."

One of the key elements unveiled last week was "Moments," a feature that promises to let users quickly tune in to "the best of Twitter" in an effort to leverage its connections in real-time news..