- Shauna McCallum
- Technology Correspondent – BBC
Musk became the largest shareholder in Twitter, with a 9.2% stake, for $3.7 billion
American billionaire Elon Musk is holding a meeting with Twitter employees to hear his vision regarding the platform and answer their questions.
This meeting comes following Musk purchased 9.2 percent of the shares of Twitter for social media, for $ 3.7 billion, and appointed him to the board of directors.
An email arrived to employees on Thursday, inviting them to meet Musk, the Tesla founder, and ask him anything they wanted, especially regarding his vision for the company’s future.
This came following speculation regarding the changes Musk would like to see happen in one of the world’s largest social networks.
Such a company-wide meeting, known as town hall or “all hands,” is usually run by the CEO or a senior member of the executive management.
And the American newspaper The Washington Post reported that shareholders, such as Musk, are not usually invited to such large meetings in the company, but this time Musk was invited and will even hold an open session with employees.
Several Twitter employees were upset by the announcement earlier this week that the famous businessman had become the company’s largest shareholder and had been invited to join the board of directors.
According to company insiders, there is concern regarding Musk’s impact on the social media company’s ability to edit content in the future.
The American billionaire did not specify what he wanted to do as a member of the board of directors, but hinted that he did not intend to take a passive position and play his role, and published a recent tweet in which he indicated “significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months.”
On Thursday, Musk tweeted a 2018 photo of himself smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan podcast on Spotify, and wrote a sarcastic comment saying, “The next board meeting will light up (Henor).” Referring to his attendance at the next Twitter board meeting.
A week before the big tech investor unveiled his new stake in Twitter, he asked his 80 million followers if the platform adheres to the principle of freedom of expression. The majority voted “No”.
Some employees, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, point to Musk’s history of using Twitter to attack his critics.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote an email to employees on Thursday titled “Ask Me Anything”, “We say Twitter is what’s happening and what people are talking regarding right now.”
“A lot of the time, we’re (at) the Twitter event and what people are talking regarding. That was definitely the case this week,” he added.
“Following the board’s announcement, many of you had different kinds of questions regarding Elon Musk, and I would welcome you to ask him these questions.”
Twitter later confirmed to the BBC that the meeting would take place, but no details were given of when or how it would take place.
