Elon Musk Joins Twitter Board of Directors – Announcement Made Hours After He Tweeted About Adding an Edit Button
Things are moving fast for Elon Musk and Twitter. Twitter has announced it appointed the Tesla CEO to its board.
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“I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted April 5. “He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term. Welcome Elon!”
Musk tweeted back, saying “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
“This was a friendly move by the Twitter board to embrace Musk with open arms as clearly a passive stake is just the start of his involvement in Twitter,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note sent to GOBankingRates. “We believe Musk joining Twitter will lead to a host of strategic initiatives which could include a range of near-term and long-term possibilities out of the gates for the company still struggling in a social media arms race.”
“Now it’s time to get out the popcorn and watch the developments over the coming months with Musk on the Board,” Ives said, adding that the Street will clearly like this news as Musk’s positive influence will be embraced by investors as seen by the stock’s reaction yesterday. On April 4, Twitter’s stock finished the day up 27% and the stock was up 9% after the announcement was made.
“We continue to believe Musk being more involved at Twitter further expands his massive ecosystem and reach, however balancing his key roles at SpaceX and Tesla should NOT be an issue or major worry for investors at this pivotal time. We maintain our Outperform on Tesla,” he said.
The announcement also comes hours following Musk asking his followers whether the platform should add an edit button.
“Do you want an edit button?” he asked his 80 million followers in a poll on April 4.
On the morning of April 5, there were 2.7 million votes with 73.4% for “yse” and 26.6% for “on.”
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal retweeted Musk’s poll, writing “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”
CNBC reports that on April Fool’s Day, Twitter tweeted that it was working on an “edit” button, and when the company was asked if it was a joke, it said: “We cannot confirm or deny but we may edit our statement later.”
The option to edit posts after publishing has been a longstanding request of Twitter users frustrated with the inability to fix typos on published posts or correct misstatements on viral tweets, Bloomberg reports.
All of this comes after the that Musk bought 73.5 million Twitter shares on March 14 — a 9.2% stake — according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 13G filing released April 4.
See: How Much Is Twitter Worth?
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Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management and a large shareholder of Tesla, told Bloomberg Radio that Musk’s investment in Twitter could be laying the groundwork for a management shakeup at the company, Barron’s reported. Agrawal only took over from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey a few months ago. This could be a “strong signal” to the new CEO, she said.
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