Twitter says Elon Musk will not join its board after all

The Tesla CEO who recently bought a large stake in Twitter has decided not to join the social media company's board.

File photo: Twitter logo

Twitter to remain open to Elon Musk's input 

Previously, we reported that Musk had purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, making him the biggest shareholder. As part of the deal for Musk to join the board, the Tesla CEO had agreed not to acquire more than 14.9 percent of the company's shares while he remained on the board.

Tesla's stock surged after his initial purchase was disclosed. After his appointment got announced, Elon Musk posted a tweet saying that he was "looking forward to working with Parag and Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!"

In addition to this, the Tesla CEO had suggested that Twitter should make its algorithm open source to allow free speech. Moreover, he conducted an online poll among his followers last week about whether they wanted an edit button or not.

But in a recent turn of events, Musk allegedly retracted his decision to be a part of the board of directors. Twitter Chief Executive Officer Agrawal said in a note posted to the site that the company's board held many discussions with Musk. However, he did not id not disclose the reason for the Tesla CEO's decision. Agrawal's latest tweet reads,

Elon's appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.

Parag Agrawal added that there will be distractions ahead but he urged staff to "tune out the noise." According to a source, Musk tweeted an emoji of a face with a hand over its mouth shortly after Agrawal's announcement. But he deleted the tweet hours later. 

There's no official response or statement yet from Elon Musk regarding this decision so let's just wait and see.

See also: Elon Musk buys Twitter for USD 44 billion (around PHP 2.3 trillion)

Sources: Parag Agrawal, NPR