Elon Musk is joining Twitter’s board of directors, in a deal coming after the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX acquired a 9.2 percent stake in the social media network to become its largest single shareholder.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted the news this morning.
“I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board!” Agrawal wrote. “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022
In a securities filing Tuesday, Twitter said that Musk will be named to the board as “promptly as practicable,” with a term set to expire at the 2024 annual meeting, reads a new CNBC report.
The letter agreement between Twitter and Musk also stipulates that “for so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9 percent of Company’s common stock outstanding.”
Under the agreement, Musk is prohibited from amassing more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s stock as long as he remains a director on the board — forestalling the possibility for at least the next two years that the mega-billionaire, who currently has a net worth of more than $300 billion USD, will mount an effort to take over the company.
Musk added in a tweet that he was “looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Musk’s disclosure on Monday sent Twitter stock surging more than 25 percent. Musk has been actively soliciting questions from users on the service in recent weeks (after he acquired the stake, of course), including whether the service lives up to the principles of free speech, and whether it should have an “edit” function. Twitter shares are up 4% on Tuesday, trading at $52.31 per share.
Yesterday, Musk launched a poll asking if users wanted an ‘edit’ button for tweets. With 3.4 million votes so far, 73% have voted yes.
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Musk, who has become the richest person on the planet, with a net worth in the range of $288 billion USD according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, was a co-founder of PayPal and went on to co-found Tesla and create SpaceX.
