Several birds in one fell swoop Why did Elon Musk buy 9% of Twitter shares and give up the membership of its board of directors?

Twitter CEO Paraj Agrawal announced in a letter to the company that Elon Musk will not be joining Twitter's board of directors.

Agrawal had said last week that Musk would be appointed to the board of directors after buying 9.2% of the company's shares, but his latest statement shows that Musk has decided not to take the seat.

“On Tuesday, we announced that Elon would be appointed to the Board of Directors subject to a background check and formal acceptance,” Agrawal wrote in the statement. “The procedures for appointing Elon to the Board were to be officially announced on April 9, but Elon stated the same morning that he would not be joining the Board of Directors. Management. I think this is for the best. We will always appreciate input from our shareholders whether they are members of our Board of Directors or not. Elon is our largest shareholder and we will remain open to his contribution."

The Twitter CEO did not say if Musk had given specific reasons for changing his mind about taking on the new commitment.

Elon Musk and control the blue bird

Joining Twitter's board of directors would have prevented Musk from owning more than 14.9% of the company under Twitter's financial laws, including securities, swaps or hedging transactions. Especially after Musk's recent stock purchase, where his stake in Twitter reached $2.89 billion.

Since the disclosure of Musk's stake in Twitter, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has publicly presented his ideas to the company, tweeting from his Twitter account, his favorite social platform.

Musk posted a poll about whether Twitter should have an edit button, confirming the company will indeed add the long-awaited feature.

He also tweeted other suggestions such as including verification marks through the paid service Twitter Blue, or turning Twitter's San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter "since there's no staff there."

These suggestions give an insight into what Musk thinks of as a strong contributor to the company and his ability to speak out his proposals and even his criticisms publicly and on the platform itself.

Threatening competition and then buying shares

Musk's strange move to acquire a 9.2% stake in Twitter, days after threatening to create a competing social platform, had put question marks over the implications of this move.

Musk, a heavy Twitter user, criticized the social media platform and its policies last month. And he said in a tweet that he is "seriously considering" launching a new social media platform, considering that Twitter is undermining democracy by not adhering to the principles of freedom of expression.

His tweet comes one day after he published a poll on Twitter in which he asked users whether they think Twitter adheres to the principle of freedom of expression, and the answer of more than 70% was "No."

Just a share or a trojan?

It seems that Musk learned the lesson from former US President Donald Trump, whose account Twitter permanently deleted on its platform in the wake of the attack on the Capitol (Congress) early last year, days after he lost the election.

Twitter pointed out at the time that Trump's tweets - which led to the deletion of his account - violated its policy against glorifying violence and could lead people to repeat the events of the attack on Capitol Hill.

Trump had more than 88 million followers on Twitter when he was banned. Then he tried to create a platform competing with the Twitter platform and announced his own social networking platform, "TRUTH Social", which faced great difficulties when launching, which does not seem to achieve what Trump desires, which is to restore his followers and reach the position he aspires to on the social networks. social.

Therefore, the move by Musk to buy 9.2% of Twitter shares could be only a plan after he learned the lesson from Trump, and found that buying the largest stake in Twitter could be a Trojan horse and a prelude to a complete acquisition plan on one of the most famous social media platforms in the world. the world.

The famous wisdom in the world of business says, " If you can't beat them, buy them " (If You Can't Beat Them, Buy Them).

But a platform the size of a blue bird can't be swallowed up, even for a business ogre and the world's richest man like Musk, so he may not be after it so much as to protect his current position on it and not meet Trump's fate.

Although the acquisition scenario is possible and is reinforced by his relinquishing membership of the board of directors, as this position, according to the laws, will prevent him from owning a share of more than 14% of the shares, and thus he will not be able to carry out the acquisition that he can do if he collects the discontent on the social network from the influencers and money , especially since rumors have recently emerged about the possibility of Musk returning to Trump's account on the network, but with that it is unlikely that Musk will take this step practically, but it is a trump card that he can wave.

Private media center

Elon Musk has more than 80 million followers on Twitter, and he has often managed to change public opinion on many things, including cryptocurrency and even other general topics, which is what makes Twitter his own media channel, he does not need to appear in media channels, but rather It is enough to send a tweet for the agencies to pick up.

All of these matters, in the past, angered Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Twitter management, so the network decided to scrutinize the information that is published from Musk's account, which angered the billionaire and prompted him to publish a vote on Twitter's restriction of freedom of opinion last March.

Perhaps Musk’s purchase of this amount of shares aims to fortify his position as a user who has the right to express his opinion freely. Moreover, his assignment as the largest investor in the network for a position on the board of directors favors this analysis.

Twitter obliges board members not to tweet in general about the network's policies, so Musk will not find himself free to pursue his favorite hobby, which is criticizing Twitter's policies, if he becomes a member of the board.

The closest scenario

On Monday, experts reported that Musk may have violated security laws when he bought more Twitter shares. Experts say that the purchase could be in violation of federal law, according to the American newspaper "Washington Post".

Experts pointed out that Musk was late in informing the Securities and Exchange Commission that the share exceeded 5%, as the technology magnate reached this percentage on March 14, but no one knew about this deal until 11 days later.

And the dangerous scenario, which may be the most likely case, would be a catcher who bought the stock at a low price. He then benefited from the stock's rise after announcing a purchase that could earn him $156 million, as the social media platform's share price rose 30% when 50-year-old Musk submitted disclosure forms for the transaction.

But even in the event of a breach, Musk would most likely receive a slap in the face in the form of a fine of up to $1 million, far less than the amount he won.

So if we connect the threads, we will find that Musk reached what he wanted in the process of buying shares and relinquishing the position of membership in the board of directors. He made a profit added to his huge fortune within two weeks, estimated at 156 million dollars, and fortified himself from meeting Trump’s fate by banning him on his favorite media platform, and obtained a Ensure that he freely criticizes the management and policies of the network without any restrictions by relinquishing membership of the board of directors, and that in the future he is able to buy larger amounts of shares, and perhaps even take full possession of the blue bird.

It is not possible to be certain of what is going on in the mind of the American billionaire and his future plans about Twitter, but it is certain that now he can tweet more freely without fear of banning Twitter, which has more shares in it than its founder.