Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Praises Elon Musk’s $44B Takeover

Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder and former CEO, is backing Elon Musk’s unsolicited takeover bid.

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, on Monday praised Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to take the service private as “the correct first step.”

Dorsey publicly threw his support behind Musk after Twitter’s board of directors earlier in the day unanimously approved the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s offer of $54.20 per share for the social media service.

“Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.” Dorsey wrote in a series of tweets.

The idea and service is all that matters to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.

— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 26, 2022

Dorsey went on to call Musk “the singular solution I trust,” adding “I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”

Musk, the world’s richest man, made his unsolicited offer to buy the company earlier this month. While Twitter was initially expected to reject the offer, the company reportedly warmed to the idea after Musk revealed his financing plan for the bid, which included backing from investment bank Morgan Stanley.

While Musk – with 83 million followers on the service, is an avid user of Twitter, he’s also one of its loudest critics. The entrepreneur has publicly raised questions about how Twitter moderates content and has indicated he wants looser content moderation for the platform.

“Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one. This is also @paraga’s goal, and why I chose him. Thank you both for getting the company out of an impossible situation. This is the right path…I believe it with all my heart,” Dorsey said in a tweet referencing Twitter’s current CEO, Parag Agrawal.

Dorsey stepped down in November as chief executive of Twitter, the company he co-founded 16 years ago, turning over the top spot to Agrawal, then the company’s chief technology officer. The leadership shift came amid mounting scrutiny of Dorsey and Twitter from investors seeking better returns and from lawmakers concerned about the company’s moderation policies for political speech.

Dorsey had been CEO of the social network since 2015, when he took over following the resignation of Dick Costolo. Dorsey also briefly served as Twitter’s first CEO starting in 2007 but was fired 16 months later. 

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