Twitter board in a bind as Elon Musk makes his move

If the board thought Musk's offer to buy the company for $43 billion was just a stunt, it has now found itself on the defensive on multiple fronts.

After the world's richest man revealed on Thursday how he plans to fund his takeover bid, the directors are under pressure to come to the negotiating table with him or find alternatives.

For some, Musk's bid has made them believe that the company will be taken private in order to address its perceived failure to innovate and find new revenue streams, even if they don't see Musk as the man for the job. It shined a spotlight on the checkered history of sluggish innovation, technical shortcomings and leadership infighting at the micro-blogging site.

One former board member said that it should go private. There is a world where the business is 10 to 100 times bigger.

The board is caught between not enough value in Musk's bid but maybe not enough ability to realize the greater value themselves, according to one tech investor.

It has been less profitable than other social media companies. In 2020, it drew the scrutiny of an activist investor over concerns that its co-founder and then-chief executive Jack Dorsey was too freewheeling and indecisive.

Analysts and advertisers have criticized Dorsey for being too focused on small changes to the core product, while failing to aggressively seek ways to boost its advertising offering and broaden its revenues beyond ads.

Here is a company that has a lot of potential but doesn't take advantage of it. You have almost got a whole PhD thesis on missed opportunities, said one advertising agency executive, adding that the social network had failed to take advantage of areas such as short-form video, ratings and reviews.