Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has cancelled his plans to join the board of Twitter, his preferred social media platform.
On Sunday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal stated publicly that Musk remains the company’s largest shareholder and that the company will continue to welcome his input.
Musk said on Twitter on Saturday morning that he will not be joining the board of directors.
According to Agrawal, Musk’s position would have began on Saturday, “subject to a background check and formal acceptance.”
“We were excited to collaborate and clear about the risks. We also believed that having Elon as a fiduciary of the company where he, like all board members, has to act in the best interests of the company and all our shareholders was the best path forward ,” he wrote.
Musk did not specify why he changed his mind about taking on the extra responsibility, according to the Twitter CEO.
Encouraging Twitter employees to remain focused, Agrawal said, “There will be distractions ahead but our goals and priorities remain unchanged.”
Elon Musk and Twitter announced on April 5 that he would be joining the Twitter board of directors. The Tesla CEO and world’s richest person revealed that he is the social media company’s largest stakeholder in financial filings a day earlier.
Following the board’s announcement, Twitter’s shares soared 4% on Tuesday. Twitter had its biggest day since its IPO in 2013, jumping more than 27 percent on Monday, when Musk’s stake was first revealed.
According to a financial filing from Twitter, Musk would be limited to having no more than a 14.9 percent ownership in the company’s outstanding common stock, including through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions, as long as he served on the board.
Musk may theoretically expand his 9% ownership above the current limit.
Musk shared a number of proposals to improve the social media firm and its products over the weekend, without indicating that he had rejected down a board position at Twitter.
A crude joke in the guise of a Twitter poll was one of the suggestions. Musk invited Twitter users to vote on whether the “w” should be removed from the company’s name. This would change Twitter’s name to “titter,” a reference to female anatomy.
Musk’s more serious recommendations included allowing Twitter Blue customers to pay with dogecoin, receiving a “authentication” checkmark, and keeping Twitter Blue ad-free.
Musk stated, “Everyone who signs up for Twitter Blue (ie pays $3/month) should get an authentication checkmark,” Musk wrote. “And no ads. The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive.”
Musk also suggested that Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco be converted into a homeless shelter, claiming that “since no one shows up anyway.”
Jeff Bezos, Musk’s competitor and another centi-billionaire, added his two cents. Bezos suggested that Twitter convert a piece of its headquarters into a shelter. He shared a story about a similar project at Amazon that “Worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer.”
