Musk to join Twitter's board

Microblogging platform Twitter will appoint Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk to its board, a senior company official said.

This comes after Musk bought 9 per cent stake in the social media platform for about USD 3 billion.

On April 4, Twitter entered into a letter agreement with the billionaire, which provides that the company will appoint Musk to its Board of Directors to serve as a Class II director with a term expiring in 2024.

Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9 per cent of Twitter’s common stock outstanding at such time, including through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions.

”I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk (Elon Musk) to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted on Tuesday.

He said Musk is both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service, which is required on Twitter and in the boardroom, to make the entity stronger in the long-term.

”Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months!” Musk replied to Agrawal’s tweet.

Interestingly, Musk last month had tweeted about the role of the social media firm in adhering to the principles of free speech.

”Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk said on March 25 while retweeting a survey floated by him on whether ”Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle”.

Over 70 per cent of the respondents voted against Twitter.

He further said the consequences of the poll will be important, adding he was exploring if a new platform is required.

Several verified Twitter accounts also asked Musk to buy the microblogging platform.