Elon Musk’s texts with Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal element tumultuous Twitter negotiations

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A tranche of Elon Musk’s personal messages have been made public as a part of his ongoing lawsuit with Twitter. The messages, revealed in a court docket submitting Thursday, shed new gentle on Musk’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter’s management, as effectively discussions with former CEO Jack Dorsey, and the way Musk’s talks with CEO Parag Agrawal shortly soured.
The messages embrace the second Musk tells Agrawal he desires to amass Twitter and take it personal, moderately than be a part of the board. Agrawal confronts Musk about an April ninth tweet questioning if “Twitter is dying.”
Agrawal writes to Musk:
You might be free to tweet “is Twitter dying?” or anything about Twitter – nevertheless it’s my duty to let you know that it’s not serving to me make Twitter higher within the present context. Subsequent time we communicate, I’d wish to you present you [sic] perspective on the extent of the inner distraction proper now and the way it [sic] hurting our skill to do work. I hope the AMA will assist folks get to know you, to know why you imagine in Twitter, and to belief you – and I’d like the corporate to get to a spot the place we’re extra resilient and don’t get distracted however we aren’t there proper now.
Musk responded lower than a minute later. “What did you get executed this week? I’m not becoming a member of the board. This can be a waste of time. Will make a suggestion to take Twitter personal.”
Twitter board chair Bret Taylor adopted up with Musk a couple of minutes later asking to speak. “Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag received’t work,” Musk tells Taylor. “Drastic motion is required. That is exhausting to do as a public firm, as purging pretend customers will make the numbers look horrible, so restructuring ought to be executed as a personal firm. That is Jack’s opinion too.”
The messages additionally present a glimpse into the connection between Dorsey and Musk. Dorsey has publicly stated that “Elon is the singular resolution I belief,” however hasn’t publicly commented since Musk sued in an try to renege on the acquisition.
However within the newly launched messages, it’s clear Dorsey has wished Musk to tackle an lively function at Twitter for a while. Dorsey tells Musk that he wished him to affix Twitter’s board of administrators lengthy earlier than Musk acquired a big stake within the firm.
“Again after we had the activist are available in, I attempted my hardest to get you on our board and our board stated no. That’s concerning the time I made a decision I wanted to work to go away, as exhausting because it was for me,” Dorsey says. “I believe the principle motive is the board is simply tremendous threat averse and noticed including you as extra threat, which I although was fully silly and backwards, however I solely had one vote, and three% of firm, and no twin class shares. Arduous arrange. We will talk about extra.”
Dorsey appeared to be referring to Elliott Administration, the activist investor that tried to oust Dorsey in early 2020.
Notably, this dialog occurred in late March, after Musk had acquired a multibillion-dollar stake in Twitter, however earlier than his stake had been made public. He and Dorsey additionally mentioned the Twitter cofounder’s perception that Twitter “can’t be an organization.”
Dorsey writes to Musk:
I imagine it have to be an open supply protocol, funded by a basis of kinds that doesn’t personal the protocol, solely advances it. A bit like what Sign has executed. It may possibly’t have an promoting mannequin. In any other case you may have floor space that governments and advertisers will attempt to affect and management. If it has a centralized entity behind it, it is going to be attacked. This isn’t sophisticated work, it simply needs to be executed proper so it’s resilient to what has occurred to twitter.
Musk responds that the thought is “tremendous fascinating” and that “it’s value each making an attempt to maneuver Twitter in a greater course and doing one thing new that’s decentralized.”
The next month, Dorsey additionally tried to play mediator between Musk and Agrawal, at one level arranging a name between the three of them. “You and I are in full settlement,” Musk tells Dorsey. “Parag is simply transferring far too slowly and making an attempt to please individuals who won’t be joyful it doesn’t matter what he does.”
“A minimum of it turned clear that you would be able to’t work collectively,” Dorsey later responds. “That was clarifying.”All merchandise really helpful by Engadget are chosen by our editorial workforce, unbiased of our mum or dad firm. A few of our tales embrace affiliate hyperlinks. In case you purchase one thing by considered one of these hyperlinks, we might earn an affiliate fee. All costs are right on the time of publishing.

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