A recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will be appointed as a member of Twitter’s Board of Directors. The update was related in a Form 8-K released on Tuesday.
According to the Form 8-K, Musk will be serving as a Class II director for Twitter until 2024. It should be noted that as long as Musk is serving as part of the social media company’s Board of Directors, he will not be able to become a beneficial owner of more than 15% of Twitter’s common stock. Musk’s position could therefore be perceived as a solution to prevent the Tesla CEO from taking over the social media company.
“The Company will appoint Mr. Musk to the Company’s Board of Directors to serve as a Class II director with a term expiring at the Company’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. For so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions,” the Form 8-K read.
Musk’s addition to Twitter’s Board of Directors was welcomed by CEO Parag Agrawal, who confirmed the news on Twitter. Agrawal noted that it was clear that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would bring value to Twitter’s Board of Directors, as Musk is both a believer and a critic of the social media platform. “He’s both a passionate believer 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. Welcome Elon!” Agrawal wrote.
Musk, in response to the Twitter CEO, noted that he was looking forward to working with the social media platform’s leaders. Seemingly hinting at his intentions, however, Musk highlighted that there would be “significant improvements” coming to Twitter within the next months. Among these improvements may be the implementation of an edit button, which was the focus of a poll that Musk launched following the announcement of his 9.2% Twitter stake yesterday. Twitter CEO Agrawal noted that the results of Musk’s poll would be important.
By taking a 9.2% stake on Twitter, Elon Musk has become the social media platform’s single largest shareholder with 73,486,938 shares of common stock. In comparison, the Vanguard Group, which was previously Twitter’s largest shareholder, holds 70.38 million shares as of its latest filing. Previous Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey only holds less than 2% of Twitter stock as of writing.
Twitter’s Form 8-K about Musk’s appointment to its Board of Directors can be viewed here.
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