Elon Musk won’t join Twitter’s board after all

Elon Musk is no longer going to join Twitter’s board, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has announced in a message to the company. Agrawal last week confirmed that Musk would be appointed to the board following his purchase of 9.2 percent of the company’s shares, but now says that Musk has decided against taking up the seat.

“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance,” Agrawal writes. “Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”

Joining Twitter’s board would have prevented Musk from owning more than 14.9 percent of the company. At the time that Musk’s purchase became public knowledge, his stake in Twitter was worth $2.89 billion.

Ever since Musk’s stake in Twitter was revealed, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been publicly tweeting on his ideas for the company — though as ever with Musk, it’s hard to know when he’s just trolling. He posted a poll for whether Twitter should have an edit button the day before the company confirmed that it actually would add the long-requested feature. More recently — the same day he apparently told Twitter he wouldn’t join the board, in fact — he’s tweeted suggestions like including verification checkmarks with the paid Twitter Blue service, or converting Twitter’s San Francisco HQ to a homeless shelter “since no-one shows up anyway.”

Here’s Agrawal’s full message:

Elon Musk has decided not to join our Board. Here’s what I can share about what happened.

The Board and I had many discussions about Elon joining the board, and with Elon directly. 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. The board offered him a seat.

We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance. Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same day that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.

There will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged. The decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands, no-one else’s. Let’s tune out the noise, and stay focused on the work and what we’re building.