Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk recently unveiled his 9.2% stake in Twitter (NYSE: TWTR). The move is not totally surprising given that Musk has been very vocal about the need to protect free speech and sees Twitter as a "public square". Despite his criticisms of its censorship policies, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal welcomed him in a public tweet and said his perspective would be valuable.
Following the news, Twitter's stock soared by nearly 11% but came off these highs to only finish 2% higher. However, the stock is higher by 64% from its mid-February low. Twitter has been a notorious underperformer in terms of its stock price relative to peers like Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), Snap (Nasdaq: SNAP), and even Pinterest (Nasdaq: PINS). There's also a big disconnect between the value of the conversations and content on the platform in terms of its impact on the real world and the monetization of this content.
Many critics of the company have pointed out that neither Twitter's management team nor its Board of Directors is among its most engaged users. The company would be well-served by incorporating more feedback from its most prolific users and drivers of traffic like Musk.
Musk joining the board also wasn't surprising when considering that he recently resigned from Endeavour Group's (Nasdaq: EDR) Board of Directors last month and has always been a proponent of free speech. In addition to critical tweets, he has conducted public polls asking them about various issues.
He will serve as a Class II director, which comes with less power and privileges than Class I directors. His term will last until the 2024 shareholder meeting. Equally important, it means that he can't own more than a 14.9% stake in the company. This is one reason that the stock's gains fizzled as it means it's not likely that Musk will buy the whole company and instead agitate for change from the inside.