Elon Musk won’t join Twitter’s board, after all. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Photograph by JIM WATSON / AFP /Getty Images; Barron’s art department
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Twitter
stock tumbled in premarket trading Monday after it was announced Elon Musk wouldn’t be joining the board of the social media company, after all.
Twitter
(ticker: TWTR) CEO Parag Agrawal late Sunday sent out a tweet saying Musk, the CEO of
Tesla
(TSLA) who recently took a 9.2% position in Twitter, wouldn’t be joining the Twitter board. He was to have joined on Saturday. Musk was still listed as a member of Twitter’s board on the company website as of early Monday.
“I believe this is for the best,” Agrawal’s tweet said. “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.”
Musk spent the weekend putting ideas about the social media company out on his own Twitter feed, including one that said subscribers to Twitter Blue, the company’s subscription service, should be able to pay with
“There will be distractions ahead,” Agrawal said. “The decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands, no one else’s.”
Musk’s purchase of a 9.2% stake in Twitter was made public last Monday, and the next day it was announced that the Tesla CEO would be serving on the company’s board. Now that he isn’t a board member, Musk might not be subject to keeping his stake in Twitter below 14.9%.
“Musk’s purchase of a 9.2% stake in Twitter was made public last Monday, and the next day it was announced that the Tesla CEO would be serving on the company’s board. Now that he isn’t a board member, Musk might not be subject to keeping his stake in Twitter below 14.9%.
“This now goes from a Cinderella story with Musk joining the Twitter Board and keeping his stake under 14.9% helping move Twitter strategically forward to likely a “Game of Thrones” battle between Musk and Twitter with the high likelihood that Elon takes a more hostile stance toward Twitter and further builds his active stake in the company,” writes Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
Twitter fell 0.5% to $46 in premarket trading Monday. It had fallen as much s 7% earlier in the premarket session. Coming into Monday trading, the stock has risen almost 7% year to date but has declined nearly 35% over the past year.
Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com