Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has U-turned on his plan to join Twitter’s board of directors and has decided to no longer take the position.
After becoming the social media giant’s largest shareholder, Musk was awarded a seat on the board.
However, Musk has now decided not to join the board, Twitter’s CEO said in a statement on Sunday night.
“Elon Musk has decided not to join our board,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in a statement.
“The Board and I had many discussions about Elon joining the board, and with Elon directly.
“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.”
“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance,” Agrawal continued.
“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 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.”
“There will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged,” the statement concluded.
“The decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands, no one else’s.
“Let’s tune out the noise, and stay focused on the work and what we’re building.”
Since April 9th, free-speech advocate Musk has tweeted several times about the company and changes that he would like to see happen to the platform.
However, there may be more than meets the eye on Musk’s withdrawal from the board.
Musk has been touting major changes at the company, but board members are limited to the size of the shares they can own.
After becoming their top shareholder with control of more than 9% of the company, Musk signed an agreement with Twitter for the following terms as long as he served on their board:
“Mr. Musk agrees that, for so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps or hedging transactions.”
Since Musk declined to join the board, he is not bound by any restrictions on how much of the company he can buy, journalist Yashar Ali noted.
Given this news…@elonmusk is no longer bound to this restriction on ownership. https://t.co/gNFoPhiOer pic.twitter.com/R8Nx3p38hK
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 11, 2022
Without being a board member, Musk could essentially continue buying up Twitter stock and end up in a far more powerful position.
