Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s decision to not join Twitter’s board reportedly means that the world’s wealthiest man is no longer restricted in how much of the company that he can buy.
After becoming their top shareholder with control of more than 9% of the company, Musk signed an agreement with Twitter for the following terms as long as he served on their board: “Mr. Musk agrees that, for so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps or hedging transactions.”
Since Musk declined to join the board, he is not bound by any restrictions on how much of the company he can buy, journalist Yashar Ali noted.
Given this news…@elonmusk is no longer bound to this restriction on ownership. https://t.co/gNFoPhiOer pic.twitter.com/R8Nx3p38hK
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 11, 2022
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in a statement on Sunday night that it was Musk’s decision to not join the company’s board after the company offered him a seat.
“Elon Musk has decided not to join our board,” Agrawal said. “The Board and I had many discussions about Elon joining the board, and with Elon directly. We were excited to collaborate and clear about the risks. We also believed that 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. The board offered him a seat.”
“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance,” Agrawal continued. “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. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”
“There will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged,” the statement concluded. “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 work and what we’re building.”
Since April 9th, Musk has tweeted several times about the company and changes that he would like to see happen to the platform.
“Everyone who signs up for Twitter Blue (ie pays $3/month) should get an authentication checkmark,” Musk tweeted.
“Blue already has a modifiable 20 second time to edit tweet feature,” Musk added. “But it’s not very useful. I turned it off. Also, there is this annoying ‘Reader’ bar that now shows up below every tweet.”
Musk also floated the idea of turning Twitter’s headquarters into a “homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway.”