Twitter falls 2% after Elon Musk turns down its offer to join the board
- Twitter fell 2% on Monday after the social media platform said Elon Musk won't join its board.
- If Musk accepted the offer, he would be barred from owning more than 14.9% of Twitter's common stock.
Twitter fell 2% in regular trading Monday after the company said Elon Musk will no longer be joining the board.
"Elon has decided not to join our board," Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced in a tweet late Sunday, sharing a note he sent to the company.
"Elon's appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and always will value input from our shareholders whether they are on our board or not," Agrawal said.
Agrawal didn't lay out why Musk, the world's wealthiest person, declined the offer.
Joining the board would have prevented Musk from becoming the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of Twitter's common stock, a securities filing shows.
Musk was offered a seat on the board after he disclosed a 9.1% stake in the company, becoming its largest shareholder.
Twitter's about-turn comes just five days after Musk said he was looking forward to his new role and to making improvements to the company.
The announcement was so unexpected that Musk was still listed on Twitter's board of directors on its website as of early Monday.
Musk's only response on Twitter was a now-deleted giggling emoji.
Twitter stock was last down 1.4% at $45.65 a share as of 9:38 a.m. ET.