Elon Musk has decided not to join the Twitter board

Elon Musk has decided not to join the Twitter board, says the chief executive of the micro-blogging site.

Musk, who became Twitter’s largest shareholder last week with a 9.2 percent stake, was expected to be appointed to the board on Saturday.

However, Parag Agarwal said in a tweet last night that “Elon shared that morning that he would not be joining the board again”.

“I believe it’s for the best,” Agarwal said. “We always value and will value input from our shareholders, whether they are on our board or not. Elon is our largest shareholder and we will be open to his input.

“There will be scattering ahead but our goals and priorities will remain unchanged. The decisions we make and how we implement them are in our hands, not in anyone else’s. Let’s stop making noise and focus on work and what we’re creating. “

Musk, a great Twitter user with 81.2 million followers, responded to Twitter with a hand over his face emoticon. The tweet has since been deleted.

His appointment to the board would limit any attempt to increase his stake in Twitter. Mask Board agreed not to increase its holdings by more than 14.9 percent for the duration of its term, which will continue until 2024.

When news of his appointment broke, Musk said: “Looking forward to working with Parag and the Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months!”

Electric car maker Tesla Billionaire’s chief executive spent most of his weekend sharing advice – many of them obviously joking – about how to improve Twitter.

In a post, he shared a poll with his followers asking if Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco should be converted into a homeless shelter “since no one shows up there”. He asked if Twitter was “dying” because of the fact that most of his follow-up accounts, including those of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, did not tweet frequently.

Musk also offered to shake up Twitter’s premium subscription service, advising banning ads and lowering its price. He suggested that there should be no ads on Twitter Blue, as “relying on advertising money for Twitter’s survival greatly increases the power of policy-making corporations.”

In a series of posts, Musk says Twitter Blue users should pay less than 99 2.99 a month and receive an authentication checkmark. “The price should probably be ~ $ 2 / month, but paid 12 months in advance and the account does not receive a checkmark for 60 days (see for credit card chargeback) and is suspended without any refunds if used for scams / spam,” he said.

Twitter Blue, launched in June, offers “exclusive access to premium features” on a subscription basis and is available in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Since emerging as Twitter’s largest shareholder, Musk has been asking his followers about changes, including whether users will be able to edit tweets after posting.

His investment has sparked speculation about his motivation, including whether it includes more freedom of speech. Twitter users have criticized the way it is regulated, which has led to the suspension of Donald Trump.

Content restraining scales, however, may prove unpopular with advertisers on whom Twitter relies for most of its revenue. Last year, Twitter’s advertising revenue was $ 4.5 billion.

Mask also targeted cryptocurrency promoter spam accounts and previously said they were “the single most annoying problem”.

Shares on Twitter rose nearly 18 percent last week. In pre-market trading, the stock is trading at $ 46.32, down $ 1.80 or 1.8 percent per share.