Twitter plunges over Musk’s surprise

Twitter shares dropped 5% in Monday’s pre-market session, after the company announced Elon Musk would no longer be joining the company’s board of directors. Musk has recently become the social media company’s largest shareholder, with a 9.2% stake.

“Elon has decided not to join our board,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet late on Sunday, sharing a note he sent to the company.

According to Agrawal, “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.”

Agrawal added: “I believe this is for the best. We have and always will value input from our shareholders whether they are on our board or not.”

The Twitter CEO did not explain why Musk declined the offer. However, a securities filing showed that joining the board would have prevented Musk from becoming the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of Twitter’s common stock. Musk made the purchase on March 14 and he now owns 73,486,938 shares, filings show. He was offered a seat on the board after he disclosed his stake in the company last week.

An active Twitter user with 81.3 million followers on the platform, Musk has followed up his stake acquisition with a series of posts proposing radical changes to the business. Suggestions included making Twitter’s premium service ad-free, adding an editing feature, and even considering whether Twitter should convert its headquarters in San Francisco to a homeless shelter “since no one shows up anyway.”

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