Elon Musk joins Twitter board of directors after becoming its largest shareholder
Twitter has appointed Elon Musk to its board of directors, just one day after the billionaire purchased a 9.2% stake in the social media company.
Credit: Twitter
In a tweet on Tuesday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said he was "excited to share" that Musk was joining the board, adding that "through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value" to the Board."
Following the announcement, Musk said he was looking forward to working with Parag and the board of directors to make "significant improvements to Twitter in coming months."
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO will serve as a Class II director until 2024, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a Class II director, Musk is barred from becoming the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the company's common stock.
A Class II director role can be used as an anti-takeover measure by companies, The Verge has noted.
On Monday, the SEC reported that Musk purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter. The purchase made Musk the largest individual shareholder of the company.
His purchase followed months of complaining about the social media service's speech policies. In March, for example, the outspoken billionaire polled Twitter users about whether the platform adhered to its own free speech policies.
Although Musk's stake is the largest, it's considered a passive interest. Purchase of passive interest shares often indicate that a shareholder isn't trying to control or influence the company.
Hours after news of his share purchase broke, Musk created another poll asking users about their interest in an edit button. In a retweet, Twitter CEO Agrawal said that users should "vote carefully," since the results of the poll would "be important."
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Credit: Twitter
In a tweet on Tuesday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said he was "excited to share" that Musk was joining the board, adding that "through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value" to the Board."
He's both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term. Welcome Elon!
-- Parag Agrawal (@paraga)
Following the announcement, Musk said he was looking forward to working with Parag and the board of directors to make "significant improvements to Twitter in coming months."
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO will serve as a Class II director until 2024, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a Class II director, Musk is barred from becoming the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the company's common stock.
A Class II director role can be used as an anti-takeover measure by companies, The Verge has noted.
On Monday, the SEC reported that Musk purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter. The purchase made Musk the largest individual shareholder of the company.
His purchase followed months of complaining about the social media service's speech policies. In March, for example, the outspoken billionaire polled Twitter users about whether the platform adhered to its own free speech policies.
Although Musk's stake is the largest, it's considered a passive interest. Purchase of passive interest shares often indicate that a shareholder isn't trying to control or influence the company.
Hours after news of his share purchase broke, Musk created another poll asking users about their interest in an edit button. In a retweet, Twitter CEO Agrawal said that users should "vote carefully," since the results of the poll would "be important."
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Comments
also, how does this human have so much time?!?!
that is all I can say. I am not an Elon worshiper. But I do respect the man and his accomplishments (not enough to ever care for a Tesla) and can sympathize with his frustrations with Twitter.
That's what Twitter tends to block/take down and you would have a difficult time demonstrating otherwise.
(Hunter Biden's laptop = revenge porn for the right) is maybe the sole exception that comes to mind.
Anyone who has been following Musk knows perfectly well why he bought Twitter stock. Musk is fed up with arbitrary removal of prominent people for allegedly spreading disinformation according to Twitter's appointed fact checkers. It's one thing to have fact checkers state that 2+2≠5. But when these 20-something Silicon Valley fact checkers, who are not subject matter experts, start removing prominent scientists and other experts in their respective fields from Twitter, that's a bridge too far. These so-called fact checkers have no business doing this. Companies like Twitter and Facebook are far too powerful to be left in the hands of non-experts who conclude something is disinformation because someone says something that is not considered the norm or the consensus. That kind of censorship retards the advancement of new knowledge. It allows the loudest and most politically connected voices to set a narrative that is incredibly difficult to overcome, even when new facts and data come to light.
Over the last several years we have witnessed repeatedly what was once deemed disinformation by powerful people turn out to be true. The fact checkers did society a great disservice then and they continue unabated. The knee-jerk reaction by many in Silicon Valley to censor dissenting views is outrageous and it needs to be put to a stop. Hurray for Elon Musk stepping in to make a positive change!
Handy reference chart:
Unfortunately for them his story is not so simple: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/08/robert-malone-vaccine-inventor-vaccine-skeptic/619734/