Tesla chief executive Elon Musk will no longer be joining Twitter’s board of directors as previously announced, but the billionaire remains the social media platform’s largest shareholder.
Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal tweeted the news, which followed a weekend of tweets from Mr Musk suggesting possible changes to Twitter, including making the site advertisement-free. Nearly 90 per cent of Twitter’s 2021 revenue came from ads.
“Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective on 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he would not be joining the board,” Mr Agrawal wrote in a reposted note originally sent to Tesla employees.
“I believe this is for the best.”
Mr Agrawal didn’t offer an explanation for Mr Musk’s apparent decision, although he dropped one major hint.
The Twitter board “believed having Elon as a fiduciary of the company, where he, like all board members, has to act in the best interests of the company and all our shareholders, was the best path forward”, he wrote.
At 9.30pm on Sunday, Musk tweeted an emoji of a face with round eyes and a hand over its mouth. The symbol is often used to suggest embarrassment or coy laughter, sometimes with a connotation of “Oops!”
It was not clear what Musk meant by the tweet, and he did not elaborate on it.
