After Elon Musk acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter, crypto bulls rejoiced. But what does turning down a seat on the company board mean for Twitter's future?
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal yesterday tweeted the news that Elon Musk had decided against joining the company's board. Although Musk’s board seat had seemed a sure thing, Musk apparently changed his mind about accepting the position.
According to Agrawal, "this is for the best" for the company. However, his official message sounds like this was not the course of action he (or Twitter) was expecting.
The move would have meant that Musk would become a fiduciary of the company, limiting him to a 15% maximum stake in Twitter. Jack Posobiec, a conservative political commentator on Twitter, said the offer was "a move to put the roadblocks up" on Musk. Fox News agreed, publishing an opinion piece that suggests Elon Musk "scares liberals" after Musk openly criticized Twitter in the last few days.
Is Elon Planning a Hostile Takeover?
Realistically, Musk has only two moves on the chessboard after rejecting the seat on the Twitter board.
Either he stops here, satisfied with his influential, but overall still small stake in Twitter, and does not interfere in the company's day-to-day operations.
Or — Musk is planning to go big and acquire a significant stake, possibly against the interests of current management. Read: he may be planning a hostile takeover. Mike Cernovich, another conservative political commentator, thinks the latter is unfolding.
It's not hard to see why Cernovich (and many other conservative voices) would think that. Over the last few days, Elon...
...suggested Twitter is dying by (correctly) pointing out that many of the top accounts rarely tweet.
...trolled Twitter by saying its headquarters in San Francisco could be turned into a homeless shelter because no one was showing up.
...openly contemplated implementing Dogecoin for functions on the platform.
If Musk is serious about changing Twitter — and the amount of attention he dedicates to it suggests he is at least thinking about it — then a small stake in the company won't cut it.
Most conservatives seem happy about Musk's dismissal of a board seat, seeing it as a snub of Twitter's overreaching moderation policies that allegedly favor liberals.
The beef between Twitter and conservatives is nothing new: ever since the suspension of former U.S. president Donald Trump's account, conservative voices have tried (without success) to establish "their version" of Twitter. The appointment of Parag Agrawal as the new CEO did little to dissipate their doubts.
However, whether Elon is Twitter's "free speech" savior remains to be seen. Equally, what a potential takeover could mean for crypto — and possibly DOGE taking on a bigger role — is yet unclear.
Don't take your eyes off this one just yet.
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