Elon Musk’s purchase of a plurality share in Twitter continues to get more and more interesting …
Elon Musk will join Twitter’s board of directors just a day after it was learned that he bought a 9% stake in the company — becoming the social media platform’s largest shareholder.
“I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board!” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted on Tuesday.
“Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”
Agrawal added: “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 responded to Agrawal: “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
If Musk’s now-famous Twitter polls are any indication, he knows what changes the users want.
An SEC filing revealed on Monday that Musk — the world’s richest person with a fortune of more than $287 billion, according to Forbes — bought some 73.5 million shares of the company, which are worth an estimated $2.89 billion.
News of the acquisition — which makes Musk Twitter’s largest shareholder, ahead of Vanguard, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock.
That gives Musk north of 3 times as many shares as Twitter’s ex-CEO Jack Dorsey.
Speaking of which …
While Mark Zuckerberg holds special dual-class shares that effectively allow him to override Meta investors’ objections and do whatever he wants, Twitter only has one class of shares. That means Twitter shares held by founder Jack Dorsey give Dorsey the same voting power as shares held by Musk.
In a demonstration of the power that can be wielded by Twitter investors, Dorsey stepped down as Twitter’s CEO in 2021 following a heated activist campaign from shareholder Elliott Management. Elliott held around 4% of Twitter shares at the time — less than half of Musk’s current stake.
No wonder Parag is kissing up to him.
Affiliate Offer: Every day, I get questions from aspiring authors asking how to improve their writing. For a one-stop guide containing all the writing advice I’d give you – and more – see my friend and client Adam Lane Smith’s deluxe Write Like a Beast course.
