Science & Tech

Elon Musk says he'll cut Twitter board members' salaries to $0

Elon Musk says he'll cut Twitter board members' salaries to $0
Elon Musk says every minute of his thinking makes Tesla $1million
TED

Elon Musk made headlines when he offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion recently – and it looks like he’s already got big plans if the sale were to go ahead.

The Tesla founder has a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter which he acquired earlier this month. He’s the company's biggest individual shareholder and was offered a seat on the board but he declined.

Since then, he’s appeared to have hit out at the board after the company adopted a so-called ‘poison pill’ to protect against the second-biggest shareholder’s cash buyout offer.

It means that existing shareholders are able to purchase additional shares at a discount to make them look less of a prospect to prospective acquirers.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

He’s now taken to twitter to make his feelings clear, hitting out at the company’s board members who are each paid between $250,000 and $300,000 a year.

“Board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds, so that’s ~$3M/year saved right there,” he wrote in response to a different user criticising the board members.

He also previously launched a poll asking his 80 million followers if “taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board.”

In response, 83% said “yes”.

It comes after a New York University (NYU) professor said that Musk, who is the world's richest man, would not be able to afford to buy Twitter.

Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU's Stern School of Business has revealed that he thinks Musk wouldn't be able to afford the social media platform.

According to the lecturer, the Space X and Tesla CEO has "no viable route to financing" because he would need to borrow against his Tesla shares, consequently causing them to "tank.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)