Specter Of Elon Musk—And His Wishy-Washy Buyout—Loom Over Twitter’s Shareholder Meeting

Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX.

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Elon Musk didn’t speak at Wednesday’s annual meeting of Twitter shareholders, and he didn’t say anything about it on Twitter. The man still seemed to be a huge presence throughout the day. The musk of Musk—it’s a potent thing.

You could tell something was in the air from the two shareholder proposals put forward by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, and the impassioned comments the center’s executives gave about the ideas.

One group asked Twitter to audit its diversity initiatives. The right-leaning group claims they have gone too far, and are now discriminating against both men and women. The other asked Twitter to publish a review into its lobbying efforts, which the center, presumably, thinks will show a liberal bias on the company’s part.

“Let’s cure the DEI mind virus spreading inside Twitter,” said a speaker from the think tank. He addressed his remarks directly to Musk and referenced Musk’s recent similar-sounding comments about a “woke mind virus.” By that, Musk means he thinks it’s foolish for companies to cave to the increased awareness around social justice over the last several years.

Shareholders rejected both proposals from the National Center for Public Policy Research, but that’s not really the point of discussing the proposals. The point is that they were allowed to attend the meeting. They weren’t on the initial agenda. These were late entries after Musk revealed his plans to takeover the company. They speak volumes about Musk’s intentions and the people he has drawn support from. He may say he’d like Twitter to act politically neutral, but there’s nothing politically neutral about the proposals put forth by the guys name-checking him. Rather, they’re deeply conservative. In the end, they’re a helpful reminder that Musk’s politics are really a quack-like-duck scenario, where their implicit meaning is the most important.

You could see Musk’s presence again when Twitter tried to get current director Egon Durban, the co-CEO of Silver Lake, reelected. Durban joined the board in 2020 after another Twitter narrowly survived a different activist investor’s interest in the company. Musk and Durban are good friends. Durban and alone was the only person Musk spoke to before his now infamous tweet about taking Tesla private in 2018; three days later, Durban turned up at Musk’s home to talk through their options about securing the funding Musk said he’d already secured.

Twitter shareholders voted against Durban’s reelection, which might suggest they’re growing a little tired of Musk and couldn’t stomach re-seating a top ally of his. They might have also voted against Durban’s reelection, which could indicate they heard ISS warn them. ISS is a research firm whose reports frequently influence shareholder meeting outcomes. ISS told shareholders to reject Durban, not due to his Musk connections. Instead, ISS based its case around the fact that Durban’s a busy guy. He …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer