Twitter CEO discloses last-minute decision in tweet
Elon Musk won’t be joining Twitter’s board according to a tweet from the company’s CEO late Sunday, April 10.
“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,” said CEO Paraga Agrawal in a tweet.
Musk had been named to the board of Twitter last week after he disclosed a 9.2% stake in the social media company. The appointment was “contingent on a background check and formal acceptances,” Agrawal wrote.
Musk is generally deemed to be the richest person in the world thanks largely to his huge stake in EV maker Tesla (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report.
Later in the evening April 10, Musk tweeted an emoticon of a face with a hand over its mouth, which generally symbolizes embarrassed laughter or “oops!”
Musk had promised “significant” changes to help Twitter increase its revenue and number of active users.
He tweeted a number of polls in the days after his stake in the company was disclosed. Among them were a question about whether to remove the “W” from Twitter’s name and whether to turn the company’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter.
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Musk won some support for that idea from rival billionaire Jeff Bezos who tweeted that Amazon.com (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report had made parts of some of its Seattle buildings available as shelters.
Musk and Bezos both have space companies, though Musk’s SpaceX is much more established, and launched the first private crew to the International Space Station on Friday.
Musk also conducted a celebration at Tesla’s new gigafactory in Austin, Texas last week, calling the building the largest manufacturing plant in the history of the world.
Musk’s stake in Twitter was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It initially disclosed a passive stake in the company. However it became apparent that Musk intended to be a very active shareholder almost immediately. He filed a revised form acknowledging that later in the week.
In his comments, Agrawal hinted at more fallout from Musk’s involvement with the company. “There will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged 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 world and what we’re building.”
