Elon Musk won’t be joining Twitter’s board of directors after all. The eccentric billionaire was offered the seat after purchasing a massive stake in the company which made him Twitter’s largest shareholder. Many expected Musk, one of the company’s loudest and most prominent critics, to bring change to the social media platform.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced the shocking news in a tweet overnight. The billionaire’s appointment was due to become effective on Saturday after news broke last week that Musk had purchased a 9.2% stake in the social media company —valued at nearly $3 billion.
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Musk had previously stated that he was giving “serious thought” to building a rival platform over concerns that Twitter was “failing to adhere to free speech principles.”
Fans awaiting a Musk-owned social media platform had their hopes dashed after news of his $3 billion share acquisition broke. The next day Twitter offered him a seat on the company’s board.
Last week, Agrawal announced that the board had an open seat for Musk. He wrote on Twitter: “I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”
A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonrmuskk)
It’s uncertain what prompted the change between last Tuesday when Musk was offered the seat, and Saturday when he was supposed to assume his new role on Twitter’s board.
“The Board and I had many discussions about Elon joining the board, and with Elon directly,” Agrawal tweeted on Sunday night. “We were excited to collaborate and clear about the risks. We also believed that having Elon as a fiduciary of the company where he, like all board members, has to act in the best interests of the company and all our shareholders, was the best path forward. The board offered him a seat.”
Musk has a long and often fraught relationship with Twitter. The billionaire is one of the platform’s most popular personalities with over 80 million followers, but he’s also one of the loudest and most prominent critics of Twitter’s moderation efforts.
Source: CNN, BBC
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