Elon Musk will not be joining Twitter’s board of directors, despite being awarded the seat just days ago.
The billionaire, who is now one of the platform’s biggest stakeholders, suggested several changes to Twitter that he’d seek to implement while on the board. One of the most controversial plans was to make the site ad-free. A bulk of Twitter’s revenue depends on ads. Last year, almost 90% of their revenue came from advertising.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal shared the news of Musk’s decision not to join the board in a memo to employees. While he did not offer an explanation as to why the Tesla co-founder chose to back away from the position, Agrawal wrote, “I believe this is for the best.”
Just a week ago, it was revealed that Musk had purchased more than a 9% stake in the company and had been purchasing shares almost daily since January 31st. With Musk no longer on the board, he has free range to buy a larger stake in Twitter and possibly take over the company or push for new directors to enact the change he wants to see on the platform.
Elon Musk has been critical of Twitter in the past, particularly for failing to enforce free speech, which has been the same criticism that politicians have voiced. Donald Trump was banned from the platform for his outlandish claims. Twitter has made it clear that Musk’s seat on the board would not have overturned decisions such as these.
