Yahoo Finance Elon Musk to join Twitter board
Elon Musk has been given a seat on Twitter's (TWTR) board after it was revealed that he is the social media platform’s biggest shareholder with a 9.2% stake.
“Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, announced on the platform on Tuesday.
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“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!”
Musk, who has more than 80 million followers on Twitter, said he was “looking forward to working” with the board “to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months”.
The company has informed the US securities regulator that he will join the board as a Class II director, with the term expiring at its 2024 annual shareholders meeting.
Twitter’s co-founder and former chief executive Jack Dorsey welcomed the appointment. “I’m really happy Elon is joining the Twitter board! He cares deeply about our world and Twitter’s role in it. Parag and Elon both lead with their hearts, and they will be an incredible team,” he wrote on Twitter.
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The boss of Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX, who with 80.4 million followers ranks in the global Top 10 of the most popular users on the microblogging site, paid almost $3bn (£2.29bn) for the stake at Twitter’s closing share price on Friday.
The billionaire entrepreneur and meme poster has celebrated the investment by polling users to ask if they wanted an edit button.
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
The billionaire, either alone or as a member of a group, will not be allowed to own more than 14.9% of Twitter's outstanding stock for as long as he is a board member and for 90 days after.
