Elon Musk Wasn’t Happy When Jack Dorsey Left Twitter. Then He Took a 9% Stake
(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk has dropped hints at his rationale for taking a 9.2% stake in Twitter Inc. on the platform itself, starting shortly after Jack Dorsey stepped down as chief executive officer.
The Tesla Inc. boss posted a meme on Dec. 1 superimposing incoming Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal's face onto Joseph Stalin's. The doctored image depicts Agrawal, formerly Twitter's chief technology officer, purging Dorsey, as Stalin did to Soviet secret police chief Nikolai Yezhov.
The post suggested Musk, 50, believed Twitter's new CEO had thrown his predecessor overboard. And Musk and Dorsey, 45, have been friendly going back years.
When Dorsey was asked in February 2019 to name the most exciting, influential person on Twitter, he singled out Tesla's CEO and alluded to his recent “ups and downs” on the microblogging service.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had just alleged Musk violated a settlement of the securities fraud lawsuit the agency brought months earlier over the billionaire's tweets about trying to take Tesla private.
Musk returned the favor a year later when billionaire activist investor Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp. called for changes at Twitter, including possibly replacing Dorsey.
“Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO,” Musk wrote in March 2020.
The two have bonded more recently over Bitcoin, extolling the possibilities for cryptocurrency during a virtual panel in July. They also fed off one another late last year in poking fun at web3, the catchall term venture capitalists use to describe online services built using blockchain technology, where control isn't concentrated in a single entity.
There have been hints since then that Musk may share concerns about the future of free speech on Twitter under Agrawal, 37. Politically conservative commentators including David Sacks, a fellow member of the so-called PayPal mafia, shared a link to a more than hour-long streamed discussion of whether Dorsey's resignation would lead to more censorship. Sacks co-founded Callin, the social-podcasting app where the talk took place.
Musk took a poll late last month asking Twitter users whether the service “rigorously adheres” to the principle that “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.” After more than 70% said no, he asked whether a new platform was needed and said he was giving serious thought to starting his own.
The regulatory filing uploaded Monday disclosing Musk's stake in Twitter doesn't say anything about why Musk purchased shares in the company. He didn't respond to messages seeking comment.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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