Elon Musk turns down Twitter board after asking 80m followers: ‘Is it dying?’
Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla and SpaceX, has turned down a spot on Twitter’s board, after being revealed as the platform’s majority shareholder.
New Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal confirmed this morning: “Elon has decided not to join our board.
“I believe this is for the best.”
Musk was due to step onto the board on Saturday. However, instead of taking up his new post – the billionaire instead asked his 81m followers: “Is Twitter dying?” citing inactivity has his top concern, after last week voicing Twitter’s stance on freedom of speech as his latest qualm with the platform.
The eccentric entrepreneur shared no reason for his rejection of the position, instead, tweeted a smirking emoji with no other comment.
Musk, currently the richest man in the world, said last week that he was “looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
The Tesla-founder has a 9.2 per cent stake in the social media giant, which is worth some $2.89bn (£2.2bn), though just a fraction of his net worth of $233bn (£178bn).
Analysts last week pegged Musk’s majority stake and upcoming position s a sign of changing winds over at the Big Tech firm, with Musk later confirming the introduction of an edit button, as well as suggesting payments in crypto currency Dogecoin.
However, Twitter staff were reportedly cautious about the billionaire’s influential position in the company, citing concerns over his statements on transgender issues, according to Slack messages seen by the Washington Post.