Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has called out the microblogging platform's board, saying that it's consistently been the dysfunction of the company.
Dorsey, who left as chief executive in November and remains a board member till next month, agreed with venture capitalist Gary Tan's statement that a badly run board "can literally make a billion dollars in value disappear."
When another Twitter user asked Dorsey if he's allowed to say this, Dorsey said "no".
Tesla chief Elon Musk had earlier said that the social media company's board hardly owns any shares. "Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders," he said.
Musk had last week offered to buy 100% of Twitter as part of his plan to take the company private. "I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced," Musk wrote in a letter to Bret Taylor, chairman of the board at Twitter.
"My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder," the Tesla founder said. The offer valued Twitter at $43 billion.
Elon Musk said he invested in Twitter as he believes in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe. "I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form," Musk wrote in the letter. "Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company."
Musk stated that Twitter has extraordinary potential that he will unlock. "I believe that the company should be private to go through the changes that need to be made. After the past several days of thinking this over, I have decided I want to acquire the company and take it private," he said.
"I am not playing the back-and-forth game. I have moved straight to the end," Musk said. "If the deal doesn't work, given that I don't have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. This is not a threat, it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made. And those changes won't happen without taking the company private," he added.
US-based investment adviser Vanguard is the largest shareholder in Twitter with a 10.3% stake. Musk, however, remains the largest individual shareholder of the company with a 9.1% stake.
