PC: Bloomberg

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wanted billionaire Elon Musk to join the board of the social media business before the current legal dispute between Twitter and Musk played out in the media. He did not, however, anticipate the other directors supporting him, according to a court document filed on Thursday.

The board is basically incredibly risk averse and regarded adding you as more danger, Dorsey said in a text message to Musk on March 26. A little over a week later, Musk did announce plans to join the board, before he altered direction and offered to acquire the firm.

Soon after deciding to pay $44 billion for Twitter, Musk changed his mind and attempted to back out of the deal. In an effort to get him to uphold his half of the bargain, Twitter is suing. In the middle of October, the two parties are expected in Delaware Chancery Court.

The board’s strategy, according to Dorsey, “was utterly foolish and backwards,” but he added that his influence was constrained since “I just had one vote, and 3% of the firm, and no dual class shares. arduous setup

The two extremely wealthy businessmen had been debating Dorsey’s proposal that Twitter should be “an open source protocol” supported by a foundation rather than a corporation. Musk reacted by calling the concept “Super interesting.”

Once he left the Twitter board in mid-May, Dorsey declared that he intended to “complete this job and correct our faults,” claiming that being a corporation was Twitter’s “original sin.”

Musk responded, “If I can, I’d want to help.”

Dorsey stated that he had wanted to speak with Musk about the notion “when I was all clear,” and that he had even attempted to recruit Musk to the board “back when we had the activist come in.” However, “our board said no” to the suggestion at that time, according to Dorsey.

Although Dorsey didn’t define what he meant by “activist,” the business was engaged in a conflict with activist investment firm Elliot Management in early 2020, whose founder Paul Singer sought to remove Dorsey as CEO owing to his lack of focus while operating both Twitter and Square (now Block). With Elliot and Silver Lake, Twitter was able to come to an agreement that kept Dorsey employed.

According to Dorsey, once the board rejected Musk’s addition, “that’s about the time I decided I needed to work to go, as painful as it was for me.”