Elon Musk gave a public sign of support for Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey after an activist investor called for changes at the company including possibly replacing its leader.
“Just want say that I support @jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good heart,” Musk tweeted, using a heart emoji in place of the word.
Elliott Management, founded by billionaire Paul Singer, has taken a stake of more than US$1-billion in Twitter and nominated four directors, people familiar with the details have said. Chief among Elliott’s concerns is the need for Twitter to have a full-time CEO, rather than one who splits his time between the social media company and mobile payments platform Square, as Dorsey does.
In a year where major news events are colliding, Elliott thinks Twitter needs the undivided attention of a CEO to oversee the role it plays in disseminating information, especially when new users and advertisers are flocking to the platform, the people said. When Twitter executives met Elliott for the first time last week, Dorsey didn’t attend, people familiar with the matter said.
Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good ❤️.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2020
Musk, one of Twitter’s most high-profile users, is a big fan of the service. When Twitter hosted a company-wide global retreat earlier this year in Texas, Musk joined via teleconference to offer his suggestions for how to improve the product. Specifically, he wanted Twitter to do more to label bots.
“I think it would be helpful to differentiate” between real and fake users, Musk said at the time. “Is this a real person or is this a bot net or a sort of troll army or something like that?” — Reported by Max Zimmerman, with assistance from Scott Deveau and Kurt Wagner, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP
