Tweets come and go — racing into the timeline before disappearing down the scroll, lost to the infinite deluge of content. In that way, they are a perfect metaphor for Elon Musk’s week. The man made enormous waves when he bought nine percent of the company, becoming its largest individual shareholder and securing a spot on its Board of Directors. But that was last week, and the eternal scroll has changed again. On Sunday night, Twitter announced that Musk would not be on the Board after all.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawai announced that Musk “has decided not to join our board.” Agarawai said that the team at Twitter was “excited to collaborate” and “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.”
“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance,” Agaraiwai said. “Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe that is for the best.”
Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. pic.twitter.com/lfrXACavvk
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 11, 2022
That’s a lot of corporate speak, but it’s notable that Musk spent Saturday tweeting some posts that might not be considered to be in the best “fiduciary” interests of the company, including a tweet that casually wondered if Twitter was “dying.” He also suggested Twitter turn its San Francisco HQ into a homeless shelter since “no one shows up anyway” and suggested removing ads from the service.
Publicly musing about the future of a company on which you are a board member might have raised some red flags, but this is all speculation. All we know is what Agrawai said. Eyebrows raised when the world’s richest man and one of Twitter’s most prolific users bought stake in the company, vowing to make some of the changes he’d long been posting about.
The New York Times notes that the decision means Musk will no longer be bound by a previous agreement in which he promised to never buy more than 14 percent of the company. Presumably, he could continue to add to his stake in Twitter, gaining more influence without a a board seat.
