In the spring of 2022, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter Inc. for about $44 billion. Twitter’s board of directors met with its investment bankers to discuss exactly one question: Was Musk’s offer more than Twitter was worth otherwise (on its own or in a competing deal)? The bankers and board concluded that Twitter was not going to do better for its shareholders than Musk was offering, so they took Musk’s deal.
A lot of Twitter employees and users were sad about this. Musk’s takeover was, let’s say, a mixed bag for Twitter’s employees and users and advertisers, and for its role in public life. At the time, the employees expressed their sadness at a town hall with Parag Agrawal, then Twitter’s chief executive officer. Agrawal was unmoved, as Casey Newton reported, saying that the board’s job was to “act in the interest of our shareholders and look for value for them in the long term”: