SpaceX and Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has rejected his place on Twitter’s board of directors.
Musk was slated to officially join the company’s board on April 9 following his large share purchase earlier last week, which sent his total Twitter stake to 10 per cent.
Now that Musk will not have a seat on the board, he is free to purchase more Twitter shares. Some experts have speculated that this opens up opportunities to purchase the company outright in a takeover maneuver.
At the time of writing, his name has been removed from the company’s board of directors membership list.
In a statement, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote that although Musk will no longer be a part of the board, the company will remain open to his input as Twitter’s biggest shareholder. The statement did not explain the reason for Musk’s refusal on such short notice. Musk has also been mum regarding his rejection of the position.
Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. pic.twitter.com/lfrXACavvk
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 11, 2022
Musk has had a love-hate relationship with Twitter. He had previously questioned the company’s policies on free speech, but also frequently uses the platform to share news from his companies, and memes. The news that Musk would become a Twitter board member stirred worries that it would give him too much power to influence Twitter’s policies.