Elon Musk’s appointment to the Twitter board of directors promises to bring about big changes.
Twitter Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will award Elon Musk a seat on its board of directors, a position the Tesla CEO and entrepreneur hopes to use to enhance the social media site after disclosing a major stake.
Musk said in a regulatory filing on Monday that he now owns around 9% of Twitter, making him the company’s largest stakeholder.
Musk wrote on Twitter, “Looking forward to working with Parag and the Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months.”
Parag Agrawal is the new CEO of Twitter, having taken over from the previous one earlier this year.
According to a source familiar with the issue, Musk will be involved in strategic choices such as the direction of Twitter’s Bluesky project and the implementation of an edit button. Supporters of Donald Trump have also urged Musk to allow free expression on the platform and to lift the ban on the former US President’s Twitter account.
Many social media sites froze Donald Trump’s accounts after he was accused of vote fraud during the 2016 US presidential election.
On Friday, Twitter shares closed at $39.31, ahead of Musk’s announcement of his position. On Tuesday, Twitter shares closed at $50.98, up 2% from Monday’s high of almost 27 percent. Tesla’s stock was down 4.7 percent.
Elon Musk is rumored to be interested in acquiring Twitter. But, according to the source, Musk has not expressed an interest in acquiring the company.
Musk, who is ranked as the world’s wealthiest person by Forbes, cannot own more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s stock as an individual shareholder or as a member of a group as long as he remains on the company’s board, his nomination may prevent him from mounting a takeover offer.
