Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced late Sunday night that Elon Musk will *not* be joining the company’s board of directors.
“Elon Musk has decided not to join our board,” Agrawal wrote in a note to employees that he also shared on Twitter:
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
Welp. That was a crazy five days. He went from “it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board” to this:
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022
What’s going on between the two of them?
This is the exact opposite of what Parag said a few days ago. As I said at the time, not a competent leader. At least he understands that his days are numbered – what he euphemistically calls "distractions". https://t.co/ozEjWPTk1m pic.twitter.com/LAl8uuAyzK
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) April 11, 2022
There’s some speculation that this means Musk may pursue a hostile takeover of the entire company:
“Tesla CEO Elon Musk walks away from Twitter's board, opening the door to hostile takeover” https://t.co/1JXMED29de
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) April 11, 2022
Or maybe there were regulatory issues that popped up?
Gut feeling: @sec played a role here https://t.co/FRJO9iiWhb
— Scott Galloway (@profgalloway) April 11, 2022
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In short, we really don’t know, and “this is all guesses”:
Short translation and this is all guesses: key words here are fiduciary (tweets), background check (sec), distraction (this ain’t over) and in our hands (maybe not in our hands) https://t.co/mXpKXy17UB
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) April 11, 2022
We have yet to hear Musk’s side of the story, but. . .
You've got 160x the followers, @elonmusk… let's hear your version. https://t.co/ao3R6ORljc
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) April 11, 2022
. . .he did tweet and then delete the blushing face emoji shortly after Agrawal’s tweet:
Elon Musk deleted this cryptic tweet after it was announced he won’t be joining Twitter’s board of directors… pic.twitter.com/kmag7cprMp
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) April 11, 2022
Musk also deleted the tweet we told you about on Sunday where he polled his followers if Twitter should convert its headquarters in San Francisco into a homeless shelter:
“Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway”
That proposal caught the attention of fellow billionaire media tycoon Jeff Bezos who actually endorsed the idea and proposed something similar to what Amazon did in Seattle:
Or do portion. Worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer. https://t.co/r0dZWsMxWT https://t.co/NbUNl1bkJ3
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 10, 2022
Musk thought that was a “great idea” but as we said, he has since deleted the tweet:
Great idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2022
But it’s not just Musk deleting tweets. Twitter product lead Michale Sayman deleted this tweet saying, “I’m looking forward to turning this ship around now with you”:
Twitter's product lead tweeted then deleted this reply to Elon Musk. pic.twitter.com/PiPB9tTuna
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 9, 2022
Twitter employees weren’t happy with Sayman’s wording, however:
Twitter employees now wondering what's going on here.https://t.co/pe29Aw68NN
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 9, 2022
Oh, NOW they want an edit button?
I could use an edit button right about now lol
— Michael Sayman (@michaelsayman) April 9, 2022
So, maybe this is all good news for free speech?
Elon Musk not taking a board seat is bullish for free speech coming back to Twitter.
The board seat was a proposed tactic by Twitter's current execs & board to curb his influence (limiting his maximum shares to 14.9%).
Musk can now pursue a hostile takeover if he so chooses.
— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.substack.com (@JordanSchachtel) April 11, 2022
Or not. . .
Musk proposed a “ratings system” for news sources in this thread which sounds a lot like the broken fact-checker model Facebook and Twitter are already using:
Truth is the first casualty. pic.twitter.com/cN9PIfDvjr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2022
Also must give ratings to news sources based on Fake news as a % of total news Lower the better
— Siddarth Pai (@siddarthpaim) April 9, 2022
Fake news purveyors would have hysterics, but a ratings system would improve quality of news greatly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2022
And now we wait to see what Musk’s next move is. We’ll keep you posted.
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