{"id":575944,"date":"2022-04-11T09:10:04","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T07:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=575944"},"modified":"2022-04-11T09:10:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T07:10:04","slug":"musk-turns-down-twitters-offer-to-join-its-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/575944\/musk-turns-down-twitters-offer-to-join-its-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk turns down Twitter\u2019s offer to join its board"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter Inc said Elon Musk has decided not to join its board, a stunning twist to a week-long saga that\u2019s captivated the tech community and touched off renewed speculation about the company\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<p>Musk held \u201cmany discussions\u201d with Twitter\u2019s directors but the entrepreneur ultimately declined their offer to take a board seat, chief executive officer Parag Agrawal tweeted. According to the CEO, Musk informed Twitter of his decision April 9, the same day he was slated to formally join the board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe this is for the best,\u201d the Twitter CEO said in an internal memo shared late Sunday. \u201cThere will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The abrupt reversal ignites renewed speculation about Musk\u2019s intentions for Twitter since disclosing he had taken a stake of just over 9% &#8211; becoming the social media giant\u2019s largest individual shareholder. If he doesn\u2019t join the board, Musk would not be subject to an agreement to keep his stake at no more than 14.9%.<\/p>\n<p>The billionaire behind Tesla Inc and SpaceX has been vocal about changes he\u2019d consider at the social media platform. Musk wasted no time in appealing to users about prospective moves from turning Twitter\u2019s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter and adding an edit button for tweets, to granting automatic verification marks to premium users. Those open musings drew in even Amazon.com Inc founder and space-faring rival Jeff Bezos, among other high-profile personalities.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lfrXACavvk\">pic.twitter.com\/lfrXACavvk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Parag Agrawal (@paraga) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paraga\/status\/1513354622466867201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 11, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\">\ud83e\udd2d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1513373170333487104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 11, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Musk and Twitter executives had been expected to host a town hall for employees this week, though it\u2019s uncertain if that will proceed. Representatives for Musk and Twitter declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s tweets have enthralled the social media sphere since the revelation of his stake. Twitter announced shortly after that the entrepreneur would be joining its board, spurring widespread debate. Several market-watchers tweeted that Musk may be staying off the board to avoid potential conflicts of interest in future &#8211; were he to consider increasing his stake of Twitter or acquiring it outright.<\/p>\n<p>Musk, CEO of automaker Tesla, is the world\u2019s richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He\u2019s also one of the biggest personalities on Twitter and has regularly stirred controversy on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>The billionaire could face scrutiny from US regulators by disclosing his massive stake days later than regulations allow, and because he revealed it in a filing typically reserved for passive investments. Ascending to Twitter\u2019s board so swiftly after the disclosure could have complicated that process.<\/p>\n<p>Musk is already seeking to exit a 2018 deal with the SEC that put controls in place related to his previous tweeting about Tesla.<\/p>\n<p>Citing internal company messages, the Washington Post on Thursday reported that some workers in recent days have expressed concern on Twitter\u2019s employee Slack channels that Musk could inflict damage to the company\u2019s culture, as well as make it harder for people to do their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s tune out the noise, and stay focused on the work and what we\u2019re building,\u201d Agrawal said in his Sunday memo to employees.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/575926\/elon-musk-on-plans-for-twitters-blue-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk on plans for Twitter\u2019s Blue Service<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter Inc said Elon Musk has decided not to join its board, a stunning twist to a week-long saga that\u2019s captivated the tech community and touched off renewed speculation about the company\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":406787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[26,2660,15861],"class_list":["post-575944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-headline","tag-spacex","tag-tesla-inc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575972,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575944\/revisions\/575972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}