By Abram Brown
The new “boss” of Twitter and one of the most “lively” users of this social networking medium will be forced to ακόμη deal even more with each other.
Elon Musk, billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, acquired 9.2% on Twitter and is now the largest shareholder of the company, according to an entry with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Meanwhile, he is one of the most popular Twitter users with more than 80 million followers (competing with Donald Trump’s numbers before the former US president was expelled from the platform) and has occasionally criticized the company, fomenting a clash with Parag Agrawal: successor to Jack Dorsey as CEO since last November.
One week ago, Musk posted a poll on his Twitter account – in which more than 2 million users voted – which eventually received more than 2 million votes, asking if the company had failed to secure the principles of freedom of speech. : a protest expressed by users for a long time.
Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.
What should be done? https://t.co/aPS9ycji37
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
For now, Twitter investors have warmly welcomed Musk’s entry. The stock added 27.1% in Monday’s session, to $ 49.97.
For his part, Agrawal was at the top of Twitter’s leadership pyramid, promising to serve the ambitious goals Dorsey had set in the last years of his tenure to increase the company’s revenue and users. In particular, Twitter aims to reach 315 million active users and $ 7.5 billion in revenue by the end of 2023, numbers significantly higher than current levels. Agrawal had told Wall Street that his goal was for Twitter to make faster decisions and launch more products: initiatives that Dorsey also tried to implement.
The former CEO of Twitter moved in these directions, after the arrival of another big investor. In March 2020, Elliot Management, one of the most well-known activist hedge funds, took to Twitter and made a series of requests, hoping to “shake the waters”. Among other things, he demanded that Dorsey leave. Elliot did not like the fact that Dorsey stepped on two boats: on one hand he ran Twitter and on the other the payment system company Block – then known as Square.
Twitter quickly came to an agreement with Elliot, avoiding corporate “disputes”, which usually last for months or even years. The company agreed to set new, higher goals and draw up a plan to succeed Dorsey. The company did extremely well during the pandemic and so Dorsey managed to keep his role and leave on his own terms, choosing Agrawal himself as his replacement.
It remains to be seen whether Agrawal and Twitter’s board will follow the same strategy as Musk. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Prior to becoming CEO, Agrawal was Twitter’s chief technology officer (CTO) – the company was hired in 2011 as a developer.
When Twitter announced that Agrawal was taking over as new CEO, Musk posted a negative – for Dorsey’s successor – meme on his account: the fake photo portrayed Agrawal as Joseph Stalin and Dorsey as a Soviet official, with the Tesla owner expresses the view that Twitter restricts freedom of speech.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2021
Musk’s presence on the platform has been “marked” by controversy. In 2018, he and Tesla were forced to agree with Twitter on some terms that have since governed Musk’s activity on social media, after announcing in a post his intention to withdraw Tesla from the stock market and make it private. Now Musk wants to get rid of these restrictions, although his online persona has not changed in the slightest. In November, for example, Musk tweeted a poll asking his followers if they agreed to sell a 10% stake in Tesla. The tweet raised questions about whether Musk was acting on the orders of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and whether the poll was in fact a public relations “trick”, with Musk’s decision to sell his shares already taken, regardless of the result of the vote.
Twitter remains a tempting “bet”. Its cultural-social power has long exceeded its economic success. The company is trying to increase revenue and boost its share price, as Facebook and Snap have done. In contrast to these two companies, Twitter’s corporate structure makes it vulnerable to external pressures: Facebook and Snap have dual-share stakes with voting rights – and ultimate control – in the hands of their respective founders and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel. Twitter does not have this kind of protection. It only has its common stock, which means Agrawal has no choice but to know exactly what Elon Musk wants.
Read also:
* Elon Musk: So he “stole the show” in 2021 and became the richest man of all time
* Musk: Tesla’s exit from the stock market was true – I had secured support from the Saudis
Source: Capital
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