Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) employees are reportedly feeling “super stressed” following Elon Musk’s abrupt decision not to join the social media company’s board.
After saying he would become the largest individual shareholder of Twitter, Musk was invited to join Twitter's board of directors by the company’s CEO Parag Agrawal.
Twitter was so confident about Musk joining the board that it even listed the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO as a board member on its investor relations webpage.
Furthermore, Agrawal said he will arrange a Q&A session with Musk and Twitter employees this week after some of them were concerned about Musk’s addition to the board.
However, Musk unexpectedly changed his mind and rejected the invitation to the board, causing panic among Twitter employees who are concerned that the billionaire will continue publicly criticizing the social media company without having to act in its best interests, Bloomberg reported.
Agrawal canceled the Q&A session and said he believes Musk’s change of heart is good for Twitter, though he warned of “distractions ahead.”
Some Twitter employees said their colleagues are feeling super stressed and are “working together to help each other get through the week.”
Musk’s decision not to join the board frees him from restrictions on how many Twitter shares he can purchase and allows him to continue criticizing the company in his tweets. Joining the board would restrict Musk from increasing his Twitter stake beyond 14.9%, however, his change of mind now raised concerns about his end game.
“This decision by Elon does not bode well for Twitter,” said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, arguing that the Tesla CEO can now continue buying Twitter shares while criticizing the platform.
“Twitter thought having Trump on the platform was tough. Elon Musk is going to be a corporate nightmare,” he added.
By Senad Karaahmetovic