In an extraordinary U-turn late on Sunday it emerged that Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and the world's richest person, would not be joining Twitter's board.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal made the announcement on Twitter just five days after excitedly announcing that Musk would become a director. Agrawal said Twitter offered the board seat to Musk on Saturday, but the billionaire turned it down that same morning.
Musk's decision seems to have blindsided Twitter.
"This now goes from a Cinderella story with Musk joining the Twitter board and keeping his stake under 14.9%, helping move Twitter strategically forward, to likely a 'Game of Thrones' battle between Musk and Twitter," Ives told Insider.
He added there was a "high likelihood that Elon takes a more hostile stance towards Twitter and further builds his active stake in the company."
Musk revealed in early April that he'd amassed a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the company's largest shareholder.
Joining Twitter's board would have limited him to buying 14.9% of the company, as outlined in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing signed by Musk.
As he is no longer joining the board, Musk can buy as much Twitter stock as he pleases – meaning he could attempt to acquire the company if he so wishes.
It's also possible a board seat would have constrained Musk's capacity for tweeting.
Musk is a prolific user of Twitter, with over 81 million followers. Twitter's founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey said in 2016 that Musk was one of his favorite Twitter users.
But Musk's tweets carry some risk. In 2018 he agreed to a $20 million settlement with the SEC over an infamous tweet in which he said he was considering taking Tesla private. Part of the settlement involved Tesla introducing "additional controls and procedures" to oversee Musk's tweets.
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