First, we learned that Elon Musk had purchased enough shares of Twitter to become its largest individual shareholder. The company announced Musk would take a seat on its board of directors, but within the space of a week, that plan unraveled, and Musk informed the board he will not accept the position. What is Elon up to now?
In the midst of all of this, Musk appears to have run afoul of a few SEC rules while continuing to thumb his nose at the agency that charged him with securities fraud over a tweet.
Musk, who already leads Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, is one of Twitter’s most visible users, with a large audience of devoted followers. The billionaire exec spontaneously shares earthshaking company plans, uncredited memes, and bizarre accusations. That’s in addition to responses that serve as a global tech support line for people who want everything from help with their electric car to politicians seeking satellite internet so they can keep citizens connected during a war.
The Musk era at Twitter included a surprise reveal that it will test an edit button for tweets soon — news that the company insists had nothing to do with a poll that its almost board member posted about the feature just before it was confirmed. The company also clarified that a board seat would not exempt Musk from its moderation policies.
After a tumultuous week, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Musk declined the board seat, which would release the world’s richest human from his commitment to not acquire more than 14.9 percent of the company’s shares. In a letter to Twitter employees, Agrawal said, “There will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged.” He also asked employees to “tune out the noise.”
Musk responded with an emoji, of course, and then quickly deleted it after just a few minutes:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23381480/oF5bwyF.png)
He’s also deleted some (but not all) of the tweets he posted about Twitter between the time when he informed the board he would not take a seat and when Agrawal announced the news.
One possibility that would be very distracting? A hostile takeover attempt from the first influencer CEO. Read on for our latest updates about Elon Musk and Twitter.
