By Adedapo Adesanya
The world’s richest man, Mr Elon Musk, will no longer join the board of Twitter, the chief executive of the social media company, Mr Parag Agrawal, confirmed this morning.
The reversal in the decision is coming less than a week after it was announced that Mr Musk, who owns Tesla and SpaceX, had been appointed to the board after buying a major stake in the firm and becoming its largest shareholder.
“Elon has decided not to join our board,” Twitter CEO tweeted.
“Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning he will no longer be joining the board,” Mr Agrawal said.
“I believe this is for the best,” he added.
Currently, the world’s richest man and with more than 80 million followers on the microblogging platform, Mr Musk last week Monday (April 4) disclosed the purchase of 73.5 million shares or 9.2 per cent of Twitter’s common stock for $2.89 billion. His announcement sent Twitter shares soaring more than 25 per cent.
Mr Agrawal had announced on Tuesday, April 5 that Mr Musk would be joining the board, describing him as “a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need”.
Mr Musk himself tweeted that he was “looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
In his announcement via Twitter, Mr Agrawal shared a note he sent to Twitter, which said Musk’s appointment to the board would be contingent on a background check and that he would have to act in the best interests of the company once appointed.
“We have and will always value input from our shareholders, whether they are on our board or not,” he said.
“Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input,” Mr Agrawal added.
He had agreed to limit his Twitter stake to a maximum of 14.9 per cent while serving on the board but could now in theory increase his holding beyond that.
Many have noted that Mr Musk’s decision not to join came as his criticism could hurt the company. In one of his many controversial takes, he tweeted that – “Is Twitter dying?”.
