Techies believe billionaire’s Twitter rant was a board ploy

Twitter’s board was too weak to oust CEO Dick Costolo — so it recruited a shareholder to do its dirty work, according to one theory reverberating around Silicon Valley on Thursday.

Last week, just hours before Twitter’s annual shareholder meeting, California tech tycoon Chris Sacca unleashed an 8,500-word critique blasting Twitter for being “too hard to use” — and a potentially “scary” and “lonely” experience.

The blog post resonated in tech circles, leading some insiders to ask whether it might have been used as a litmus test by Twitter board members including venture capitalist Peter Fenton.

“My sense is that Peter Fenton floated a trial balloon through Sacca,” one source said. “[Sacca] was doing his dirty work.”

“There was support for Chris Sacca’s note, and then they had the impetus to get rid of him,” the source added. “When the momentum is moving in the wrong direction, you can’t get over it.”

Sacca’s lengthy blog, which called for new features to make Twitter more enjoyable for average users, was spot-on, said Dave Vronay, CEO of Heard, an LA-based social-networking platform.

Now, Twitter will have its hands full as it looks to grow revenues by expanding its video platform, according to Noah Mallin, social media head at MEC, North America.

Twitter is expected to launch a new “autoplay” feature for video similar to Facebook’s, said a source.

“Twitter is at a crossroads,” Mallin said. “Facebook went through a similar issue . . . but Facebook was growing. Twitter has peaked.”