Elon Musk "has decided not to join our board," Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted on Monday morning, days after welcoming Tesla CEO to the board. Musk recently became Twitter's largest shareholder with a 9.2 percent stake worth $3 billion.
The board had "many discussions" with Elon about him joining the board, Agrawal wrote in a note to the company.
"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."Parag Agrawal, Twitter CEO
"Elon's appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best," he added.
'Best Interests of The Company'
One of the reasons why Musk rejected a seat on the board could be the stipulation that he "has to act in the best interests" of the company and shareholders, mentioned in Agrawal's note.
Elon has been a vocal critic of Twitter in the past. At the beginning of April, he had criticised the platform for restricting free speech and had said that he is giving "serious thought" to building a new social media platform.
Musk has described himself as a "free speech absolutist", however he has attempted to limit free speech on multiple occasions. Most recently, Tesla fired an employee for sharing reviews of its Full Self Driving (FSD) Beta system on YouTube.
There was also an internal outcry after Musk was invited to the board. Twitter employees were concerned that it would impact the company's culture and make their jobs harder, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Another thing that might have influenced the decision is the share cap mentioned in Twitter's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to filing, Musk cannot own more than 14.9 percent of Twitter stock while he is a director of the board, and for 60 days after. This could have prevented a potential hostile takeover and change in management.
'Activist' Shareholder
Musk, who is one of the most followed people on the platform, has been busy bouncing ideas off his 81 million followers, ever since news broke that he had become Twitter's largest shareholder.
Through a Twitter poll on 5 April, he asked his 80 million followers if they wanted an edit button on the platform, after which Twitter revealed it had already been working on the feature.
He also asked users in a poll if Twitter's headquarters should be converted into a homeless shelter to which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos replied saying, "Or do portion. Worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer."
In a less serious poll, he asked if "w" should be deleted from Twitter's name. The options were "yes" and "of course."
Musk also suggested a series of changes to the Twitter Blue subscription service, including banning advertising, reducing the price, and giving an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
(With inputs from The Washington Post)
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