Elon Musk will not be joining Twitter’s board of directors, according to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in a statement to the company. Following his purchase of 9.2 percent of the company’s shares last week, Agrawal stated that Musk would be named to the board, but now claims that Musk has decided not to take the position.
“On Tuesday, we announced that Elon will be nominated to the Board, subject to a background check and formal acceptance,” adds Agrawal. “Elon’s appointment to the board was set to take effect on April 9, but Elon announced that he would no longer be joining the board that morning. This, I believe, is for the best. We have always valued and will continue to value shareholder input, whether they are on board or not. Elon is our largest shareholder, and we will continue to listen to his suggestions.”
Musk would not have been able to control more than 14.9 percent of Twitter if he had joined the board of directors. Musk’s stake in Twitter was valued at $2.89 billion at the time of his purchase becoming public.
Since Musk’s Twitter investment was revealed, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO have been actively tweeting about his company’s plans – though it’s difficult to tell whether he’s just teasing. The day before the company revealed that it will introduce the long-requested feature, he tweet a poll asking if Twitter should have an edit button.
More lately, he’s posted ideas like combining verification checkmarks with the paid Twitter Blue service, or converting Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters to a homeless shelter “because no one shows up anyway,” on the same day he reportedly told Twitter he wouldn’t join the board.
