Musk: Economic interests of Twitter’s board ‘simply not aligned with shareholders’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday pointed out that those who serve on the board of Twitter each hold very little shares in the social media giant, adding that the “economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.”

Musk was replying to a tweet that indicated he “was in for a bad time” alongside a photo of a list of names of those who serve on the Twitter board and the percentage of shares that each owns.

“I’m not sure he’s prepared to take on a couple PhDs, a few MBAs, and a Baroness who use Twitter once a year (to reset their passwords) and collectively own 77 shares of the company,” the user wrote.

“Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares!” Musk said in a reply, referring to former CEO Jack Dorsey, who owned a little over two percent of the social media company, according to a Dec. 2021 proxy statement. “Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.”

Musk also replied to another tweet from a user who said that the Twitter board, excluding Dorsey, owns about 0.12 percent of the roughly $34.4 billion company, which is around $41 million worth of stock, according to Yahoo Finance.

“They have not only, behind closed doors, rejected @elonmusk’s offer to purchase the company 20% above market value. They have threatened to dilute their shareholder’s stake in the company. Criminal negligence?” the user wrote.

“In fairness to the Twitter board, this might be more of a concern about other potential bidders vs just me,” Musk replied.

His comments follow Twitter adopting a so-called poison pill to help prevent it from undergoing acquisition after Musk put forward an offer to buy the company for $43 billion. Under the plan, if any person or group acquires 15 percent or more of Twitter’s stock without the board’s approval, other shareholders are allowed to purchase additional shares at a discount.