Twitter gets smaller: Losing two board members, chief scientist

Twitter's employee and board of directors rosters are being trimmed down by a few characters shorter as two of its earliest investors are leaving the board just as the chief scientist is as well.

First, chief scientist Abdur Chowdhury, who was responsible for developing implementing Twitter Search and Trends among other projects, is leaving Twitter, which he confirmed via (naturally) Tweet. Reasons for why Chowdhury is leaving haven't been disclosed yet, but TechCrunchpoints towards Twitter's latest round of funding as a possible source of upheaval.

That could also be related to the departure of Fred Wilson and Bijan Sabet, two of Twitter's earliest investors as well as members of the board.

Sean Garrett, Twitter’s vice president of communications, actually did take time to comment on this matter in a statement, which is brief for most people but probably a long statement considering this is a company that bases itself on 140-character posts:

Bijan Sabet and Fred Wilson both played important and greatly appreciated roles in our success. Both saw what Twitter could become before most anyone else. We look forward to their continued input as both investors in the company and passionate users of the product.

Given that public announcements and confirmations about all three of these players have trickled out in a matter of hours, this lends to speculation that there is something awry at Twitter. Could it have something to do with funding? Maybe Twitter isn't actually worth as much as everyone estimates, which could have caused some in-fighting?

Actually, probably not. According to AllThingsD, "People familiar" with Twitter as well as Wilson's Union Square Ventures and Sabet’s Spark Capital asserted that "there’s no bad blood behind the move."

Perhaps it is all mere coincidence. Perhaps.

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