Elon Musk won’t join Twitter’s board after all

Photo by PATRICK PLEUL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

In a message to the company, Parag Agrawal said that Musk was no longer going to join the board. After buying 9.2 percent of the company's shares, Musk would be appointed to the board, but now he has decided against taking up the seat.

On Tuesday, we announced that Elon would be appointed to the board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance. I think this is for the best. Whether shareholders are on the Board or not, we value their input. We will be open to his input, as he is our biggest shareholder.

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Musk would have been prevented from owning more than 14.9% of the company if he joined the board. The value of Musk's stake in the micro-messaging service was known at the time of his purchase.

Since Musk's stake in the social media site was revealed, the CEO of both companies has been public with his ideas for the company. The day before the company confirmed that it would add the long-requested feature, he posted a poll on whether or not it should have an edit button. He wouldn't join the board, in fact, he had suggestions like including verification checkmarks with the paid service, or converting the service.

Here's the full message from Agrawal.

Elon Musk has decided not to join our Board. Here’s what I can share about what happened.

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. Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9 effective date was 4/9, but Elon shared that same day 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 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.