Twitter CEO lobbied against exiling Dorsey in 2008: investor

Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo gestures during a conference at the Cannes Lions in Cannes June 20, 2012. Cannes Lions is the International Festival of creativity.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter CEO Dick Costolo lobbied against exiling Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey in a 2008 power struggle, according to an early investor who shed new light on the management turmoil that for years roiled one of Silicon Valley's drama-ridden companies.

Chris Sacca, a former Google executive turned investor, said Costolo - another Twitter investor in 2008 - urged the board to keep hold of Dorsey, who is widely credited with inventing the 140-character messaging service.

Costolo told board members that "you can't just send the f- inventor of the product on his way," Sacca said during a five-minute, expletive-laced monologue at a talk hosted in Los Angeles on Thursday by PandoDaily, a technology blog.

"Twitter did not respond to a request for comment."

Dorsey's successor as CEO, Ev Williams, also left the company under political pressure in late 2010, said Sacca. Costolo assumed the top role after Williams's departure, and brought Dorsey back to Twitter as executive chairman in March, 2011.

"I'm sure Jack still holds grudges, and he should," said Sacca, who served as a middleman last year when he connected investors with Twitter shares in deals worth hundreds of millions dollars.

Dorsey, who founded payments company Square Inc in 2010, became chatter fodder in the Valley earlier this month when the New York Times reported that he had been pushed out of Twitter for a second time after employees complained that he was difficult to work with.

Dorsey responded publicly by saying he had trimmed his role at Twitter as part of a transition process pre-arranged with Costolo. (Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Bernard Orr)