The news is true. Elon Musk will join Twitter’s board of directors after taking a 9.2% stake in the company, a move that has sent Twitter’s shares up by 2%.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted the announcement, saying, ”Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our board.”
“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,” Agrawal added.
The move got the approval of former chief Jack Dorsey, who tweeted that Musk “cares deeply about our world and Twitter’s role in it.” He went on to later add, “I’ve wanted Elon on the board for a long time.”
Musks’s term will extend to 2024, during which, and for 90 days after, he cannot be the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the company’s common stock outstanding.
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022
Musk’s purchase came after the Tesla CEO said he was considering building a new social media platform following bouts of criticism of Twitter. Since named to the board, he has quickly teased improvements that would be made to the product.
“Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!” he said in a tweet.
Musk’s stake is considered a passive interest despite being the largest among outside shareholders. That translates to mean, as a holder, he isn’t trying to control or influence the company direction, despite what some investors believe of Musk to take an aggressive stance.
Nonetheless, his investment comes at a key time for the social media company, whose CEO Agrawal is under pressure to reach the company’s internal goals since taking over from Dorsey in November 2021. This includes growing Twitter to 315 million monetisable daily active users by the end of 2023 from its current reported 217 million monetisable daily active users.
Musk has long been an avid user of the platform, which more than 80.5 million followers.