为什么员工和董事会都爱他，投资者却要逼他下台？

    华尔街与Twitter的蜜月期整整持续了两个月零两天。2013年11月7日，Twitter成功上市。自Facebook令人大跌眼镜的上市经历之后，这是一次最平稳的科技公司IPO。作为路演、股权分配、定价和上市事务的负责人，该公司首席执行官迪克·科斯特洛的表现堪称完美，被誉为一流的执行者。上市交易第一天，Twitter股价暴涨73%。

    他在Twitter长达5年的成功任期，在IPO时达到了顶峰，可以说，是他将Twitter变成了一家值得投资的上市公司。在科斯特洛之前，外界的普遍观点是，Twitter的成功来得有些莫名其妙。当时的Twitter花钱如流水，经常出现宕机，公司毫无秩序，没有方向，内部充满了创始人的权力斗争，管理漏洞百出，就像一艘随时会漏水的独木舟。

    科斯特洛曾是一名喜剧演员，后来开始创业，小有成就。2009年，他成为Twitter首席运营官（次年担任首席执行官），开始对公司进行整顿。为了阻止信息泄露，他换掉了整个董事会。他亲自聘用的亚当·贝恩一手打造了Twitter的广告业务部门。在Twitter提交S-1表格申请上市时，其年度收益同比增长198%。2013年，他还被《时代》杂志评为“科技界最具影响力的10位CEO”之一。科斯特洛很受员工拥戴，上周四，Twitter员工纷纷用主题标签#thankyoudickc来表达对科斯特洛的支持，悲怆之下就好像他并不是辞职，而是已经离开人世。

    但在一家市值320亿美元的上市公司，科斯特洛很快便从功臣变成了千夫所指的对象。2014年1月9日，早在公司公布第一季度收益报告之前，有3位分析师就调低了对其股票的评级，Twitter股价由此遭遇了第一次打击。随后，Twitter一直处于守势，股价增长乏力。

    这对Twitter来说是一种明显的转变。上市之前，作为一家资金充足的私有公司，Twitter利润不足反而在某种程度上是一件值得庆祝的事情，关键员工的离职也可以被视为“成长的痛苦”。上市后，Twitter命运发生明显的转折。对于那些希望以IPO作为完美谢幕的“独角兽”公司来说，Twitter的遭遇也是一个警示。正如风险投资家艾伦·帕提考夫所言，独角兽公司的估值将不得不是其某个时点收入的若干倍。这也解释了为何今年上市公司少之又少，不论科技公司还是其他公司；而像Uber这类估值最高的企业干脆就没有上市计划。

    It took Wall Street exactly two months and two days to fall out of love with Twitter. On November 7, 2013, the company had the smoothest tech-industry IPO since Facebook’s faceplant of a public debut, and its chief executive Dick Costolo, who oversaw the flawless road show, share allocation, pricing, and listing, was praised as a champion executor. Twitter stock soared 73% on its first day of trading.

    Twitter’s IPO was the culmination of a successful five-year tenure for Costolo, who can take credit for whipping Twitter into IPO-worthy shape. Before Costolo, the popular narrative goes, any success Twitter had experienced was in spite of itself. The money-bleeding, fail-whaling company was chaotic, lost, rife with founder power grabs, and leakier than a wicker canoe.

    When Costolo, a one-time comedian who’d had modest successes as an entrepreneur, became Twitter’s chief operating officer in 2009 (and the next year, CEO), he shook things up. He replaced the entire board, including prominent investors Fred Wilson and Bijan Sabet, to halt leaks. He oversaw the hiring of Adam Bain, who created Twitter’s entire advertising business. When Twitter filed its Form S-1 to go public, it reported 198% year-on-year revenue growth. Costolo was popular among employees, who on Thursday gushed with support of him on Twitter using the hashtag #thankyoudickc as if he’d died rather than resigned. In 2013, Costolo was named one of Time‘s10 most influential tech CEOs.

    But as a public company with a $32 billion valuation, Costolo’s early credit quickly turned to blame. Twitter’s shares took their first hit on January 9, 2014 after three analysts downgraded the stock prior to the company’s ever first quarterly earnings report. Twitter has been playing defense ever since, and the company’s stock price has languished as a result.

    It’s a stark turnaround from Twitter’s cushy life as a well-funded private company, where a lack of profits is something to celebrate and turnover of key employees could be brushed off as “growing pains.” It’s also a warning sign to any so-called “unicorn” startup that expects its big exit to be an IPO. As venture investor Alan Patricof likes to say, these companies will have to be valued on a multiple of their earnings at some point. It explains why very few companies—tech or otherwise—have gone public this year, and the most valuable ones, like Uber, don’t intend to.