Twitter boss gives £128m shares to staff

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has announced he will give a third of his shares in the firm to employees.

The giveaway is worth just under 200 million US dollars (£128 million) and will be distributed based on staff performance.

If they were given out equally, each staff member would reportedly receive 55 thousand dollars (£36,000).

Mr Dorsey, who was appointed chief executive on October 5, took to Twitter to outline his plans.

"I'm giving 1/3rd of my Twitter stock (exactly 1% of the company) to our employee equity pool to reinvest directly in our people," he tweeted.

"As for me: I'd rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small. I'm confident we can make Twitter big!"

It will prove a much-needed fillip for staff morale after Mr Dorsey announced earlier this month that 8% of staff would be laid off as "part of an overall plan to organise around top product priorities".

In an eventful month for the tech giant, Twitter also announced the appointment of Google chief business officer Omid Kordestani to its board of directors.