Elon Musk to join Twitter board, shares surge again
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 05 Apr 2022
(Sharecast News) - Twitter has appointed Elon Musk to its board after the Tesla owner took a 9.2% stake in the social media company.
As of 14 March, Musk owns just under 73.5m shares and is the biggest shareholder in Twitter.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filing on Tuesday, for as long as Musk is serving on the board and for 90 days thereafter, he will not be allowed to own more than a 14.9% stake in Twitter. Musk joins as a Class II director and his term will expire in 2024.
Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal tweeted on Tuesday: "I'm excited to share that we're appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through our conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to use that he would bring great value to our board
"He's both a passionate believe 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."
Musk tweeted back: "Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!"
At 1440 BST, the shares were up 6.7% $53.40, having already surged on Monday after it emerged that Musk had taken a stake.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Socially ambitious Elon Musk appears to have become increasingly focused on the way Twitter has been operating, if his own poll tweets are anything to go by, so news that he is taking a board position will lead to expectations that he wants, and will have, greater involvement in decision making at the social network.
"This may lead to some nervousness about Mr Musk getting too much influence about the way Twitter is run, with a view to bolstering his own personal brand and that of his companies'. Although his involvement has already sparked a share surge with expectation that it could lead to higher levels of participation on the platform, over the longer term Twitter investors will want to see that high levels of governance are adhered to, otherwise the independence of Twitter could be questioned, and the risk is that users may start to drift away.
"Mr Musk has also made no secret of his desire to launch a social media platform of his own so this new role will put him in an ideal position to glean knowledge about the opportunities and risks of a possible future venture."
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