Tesla CEO Elon Musk Joins Twitter Board After Taking 9.2% Stake

By Scott Chipolina

Elon Musk has been appointed to the Twitter board, according to a tweet published by Twitter's CEO Parag Agrawal.

"I'm excited to share that we're appointing Elon must to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board," Agrawal said.

The Twitter CEO added that Musk is "both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service, which is exactly what we need on Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term."

Musk responded directly to Agrawal's tweet, saying he was "looking forward to working with Parag and Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months."

Musk has been making Twitter-related headlines recently, and this news comes hot off the heels of the Tesla CEO's recent survey, questioning users whether or not Twitter "adhered to free speech."

Elon Musk and Twitter

Last month, Musk ran a survey—ironically on Twitter itself—asking users whether or not the social media platform "rigorously adhered" to the principle of free speech.

Of over 2 million respondents, 70% said Twitter did not adhere to this principle.

Just yesterday, Musk announced a 9.2% stake in Twitter. The Tesla CEO purchased 73,486,938 shares of common stock, with TWTR trading at $39.31 at Friday's close last week. This brought his total purchase to more than $2.8 billion.

According to a regulatory filing, Musk can now up his Twitter stake to 14.9%, but no higher—a measure to prevent the Tesla CEO from taking control of the company itself.

One of Musk's favorite cryptocurrencies—Dogecoin—surged by nearly 10% as the news broke.

The leading canine crypto is currently up 5.3%, trading at a little over $0.15, according to CoinMarketCap.

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