Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) shares fell after Elon Musk declined to join Twitter’s board of directors, despite creating a lot of buzz about it. Elon Musk revealed last week that he owns 9.2% of the $37 billion company.
TWTR stock was trading 0.84% lower at $45.86 at the time of writing.
“Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal confirmed in a tweet.
“We were excited to collaborate and be clear about the risks. We also believed that Elon as a fiduciary of the company where he, like all board members, has to act in the best interest of the company and all our shareholders, was the best path forward,” Agrawal stated.
Agrawal also stated that Musk remains Twitter’s largest shareholder and that the company will continue to welcome his input. “We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our board or not,” he said.
Musk expressed his delight at the news of his appointment to the board of directors in a tweet. “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
It’s unclear what enhancements Musk had in mind. Musk recently suggested on Twitter that the platform does not allow for enough free speech and that it should make its algorithm open source. Last week, he also polled his followers about whether they “want an edit button,” a long-standing, if divisive, feature request from many Twitter users.
As part of the agreement for Musk to join the board, he had to agree not to acquire more than 14.9% of the Twitter’s shares while on the board.
Twitter users believe that this did not sit well with the billionaire.
Musk has yet to make an announcement about the edit button or his decision to decline board membership, but investors are watching him with bated breath. Because he is as unpredictable and volatile as the market, the only thing certain about him is that he will surprise you.
