Elon Musk will not be joining Twitter’s board of directors, according to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in a statement to the business. Following his acquisition of 9.2 percent of the company’s shares last week, Agrawal stated that Musk would be named to the board, but now claims that Musk has decided not to take the position.
“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance,” Agrawal wrote. “Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same day that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”
Musk would not have been able to control more than 14.9 percent of Twitter if he had joined the board of directors. Musk’s stake in Twitter was valued at $2.89 billion at the time of his purchase becoming public.
Since Musk’s Twitter ownership was revealed, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been publicly tweeting his ideas for the firm — but it’s difficult to tell when he’s just trolling, as is the case with Musk.
The day before the company revealed that it will introduce the long-requested feature, he tweeted a poll asking if Twitter should have an edit button. More recently, he tweeted ideas like incorporating verification checkmarks with the paid Twitter Blue service or transforming Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters to a homeless shelter “since no one shows up anyway” on the same day he supposedly told Twitter he wouldn’t join the board.
Following the board announcement on Tuesday, Twitter’s shares soared 4% before closing the day up 2%. The business enjoyed its greatest day since its IPO in 2013, surging more than 27 percent after Musk’s shareholding was first revealed on Monday.
According to a financial filing from Twitter, Musk would be limited to having no more than a 14.9 percent ownership in the company’s outstanding common stock, including through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions, as long as he served on the board.
Musk may hypothetically expand his 9% ownership above the current limit. Musk shared a number of proposals to improve the social media firm and its products over the weekend, without indicating that he had rejected down a board position at Twitter.
