Elon Musk joins Twitter’s board after becoming its largest shareholder

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, joins the board of directors of Twitter, a day after revealing that he owns a 9.2% stake in the social networking platform.

Twitter Inc. he said in a regulatory presentation Tuesday that on Monday he signed an agreement with Musk that will give the billionaire a seat on its board, with the term that will expire at its 2024 annual shareholders ’meeting.

“Through the conversations with Elon over the last few weeks, it has become clear to us that he would add great value to our advice,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said on Tuesday morning.

Twitter shares have gained 35% since Musk revealed he has taken a stake in the social media company, adding $ 980 million to Musk’s fortune. The Tesla leader often uses Twitter to communicate with his 80 million followers, sometimes causing him problems. A wireless tweet series on Tesla deprivation in 2018 led U.S. stock regulators to appoint a Twitter babysitter for Musk, who must review anything the CEO posts about his company.

Musk is expected to push Twitter on issues of free speech, an issue that has been openly discussed. Twitter is one of several social media platforms that try to strike a balance between free speech and censorship content that is considered hateful, harmful, or false.

Last month, Musk thought openly about launching his own social media platform. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public square of the city, not respecting the principles of free speech fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?” He said.

His participation on Twitter comes at a time when the company’s founder, Jack Dorsey, has been promoting the idea of ​​an open source media platform with few controls.

“[W]We believe that one of the main drivers of this investment is the desire of Mr. Musk is remodeling the platform and making it more open source with fewer intermediate controls, “Truist Securities analysts said in a research note. (~ 1% of net worth), we would not be surprised to see it further increase its shareholding and potentially take a more active role in decision-making in the company “.

Musk, either alone or as a member of a group, may not own more than 14.9% of Twitter’s outstanding shares while on board and for 90 days thereafter.

9% stake makes it Twitter’s largest shareholder. In a tweetMusk said he hoped to make “significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months!”

The Associated Press contributed to the information.