Elon Musk will not join Twitter’s board. Now what?

Elon Musk is apparently not on board with serving on Twitter’s board of directors, declining the seat the morning his appointment was supposed to take effect. Twitter’s stock price fluctuated throughout Monday’s trading day as investors learned the company’s largest shareholder backed out of the board. Still, the stock remained markedly higher than before Musk took an active stake in the company. When Musk’s 9.2% purchase was made public one week ago, shares skyrocketed 27%.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees that while he and the board were “clear about the risks” of Musk joining the board, they thought having him as a fiduciary of the company, where he’d have to “act in the best interests of the company and all our shareholders, was the best path forward.”

Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. pic.twitter.com/lfrXACavvk

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 11, 2022

Musk’s appointment to the board was contingent on a background check and formal acceptance. After declining the offer Saturday, Agrawal shared, “I believe this is for the best.” He did warn employees of “distractions ahead” and advised them to “tune out the noise.”

By refusing the seat, the world’s richest man will not be beholden to its restrictions and can acquire as much Twitter stock as he wants. The board seat would have limited Musk to a 14.9% stake in the company.

Over the weekend, Musk was tweeting many musings about the company, from questioning whether it should drop the ‘w’ in Twitter to polling if Twitter’s headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter. Those tweets have all been deleted.

After Agrawal broke the news of Musk’s rejection, the billionaire appeared to react with a smiling emoji with a hand over its mouth, but then deleted the tweet.

Elon Musk deleted this cryptic tweet after it was announced he won’t be joining Twitter’s board of directors… pic.twitter.com/kmag7cprMp

— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) April 11, 2022