Musk tells Twitter employees they still receive stock even though the company is privateÂ
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk told employees Monday they can continue to receive stock and options as part of an “ongoing compensation plan” even though the company is now private, according to an internal memo viewed by CNBC.
Musk said the stock plan will resemble the one in place at SpaceX, where he is also CEO. SpaceX conducts secondary offerings regularly as a way for long-time stockholders to sell equity, given that the company remains private for more than 20 years since its founding.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the inventor of SpaceX, has been named to Twitter’s Board of Directors, preventing him from holding more than 14.9 percent of the media giant’s common stock, only one day after buying a 9.2 percent passive investment in the company.
According to a regulatory document released on the previous Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Elon Musk has become Twitter’s largest shareholder after acquiring $2.89 billion worth of stock.
Musk now has a 9.2 percent passive ownership in the social media company, according to the SEC filing. Out of 800,641,166 Twitter shares, he owns 73,486,938 common shares. As a result, Musk now controls approximately 10% of Twitter.
Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s Chief Executive Officer, said on Tuesday that Elon Musk will join the company’s Board of Directors as a Class II Director, stating that “he would add enormous value to our Board.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was invited to join the board of directors just one day after revealing a 9.2% interest in Twitter, making him the company’s largest stakeholder.
Just days before, he openly chastised the firm, which he dubbed “the de facto public town square,” for “fundamentally undermining democracy” by failing to adhere to free speech norms, and he considered starting his own social media platform.
