Musk won’t be joining Twitter board, says platform’s CEO
New York City, Apr 11 (EFE).- Tesla CEO Elon Musk will no longer be joining Twitter’s Board of Directors, the platform announced Sunday, just days after his appointment was announced.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who on Tuesday had said that Musk would join the Board after he became the platform’s biggest shareholder, made the new announcement in a tweet on Sunday night.
“Elon’s appointment to the board was going to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board,” Agrawal wrote.
On Tuesday, Agrawal had said he was “excited” to announce that Musk would join the Twitter Board of Directors and had anticipated that he would bring “great value” to it.
According to Agrawal on Sunday, the board “believed 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,” he wrote.
Agrawal added that this was Musk’s own decision, and that he believes it is “for the best.”
After the announcement of Musk’s appointment to the board on Apr. 5, Twitter shares shot up even before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange.
A day earlier, the announcement of Musk’s acquisition of 9.2 percent of the tech platform had sent the company’s stock soaring, closing 27.12 percent above its previous close.
The SpaceX billionaire, who now owns almost 73.5 million Twitter shares worth about $3 billion, has been critical of the social media network.
At the end of last month, Musk accused Twitter of “failing to adhere to free speech principles” and said he was giving “serious thought” to creating his own platform.
A United States Securities & Exchange Commission regulatory filing shows Musk acquired his stake on Mar. 14, which would mean he was already Twitter’s largest outside shareholder when he criticized the platform.
Such criticism had sparked misgivings in some quarters, with concern that Musk would wield excessive power to change the company’s ethical posting standards, including banning former United States president Donald Trump “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after the assault on the Capitol building by his supporters on Jan. 6 last year. EFE
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