Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey fully endorsed Elon Musk’s planned purchase of the social media company in a hostile takeover on Monday. Musk and Twitter’s board reached a deal that will see the billionaire SpaceX founder pay $US44 ($61) billion to take the company private. And while Dorsey is no longer the CEO and ultimately had little say in the matter, aside from serving on the Board of Directors, it’s interesting that the man who sent the platform’s first ever tweet in 2006 would say, “Elon is the singular solution I trust.”
“I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness,” Dorsey said in a second tweet following a link to Radiohead’s 2000 song “Everything in its Right Place.”
“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,” Dorsey continued.
Then Dorsey got philosophical, explaining that he doesn’t actually think anyone should own Twitter. However, if anyone is going to own it, then Musk is the person to do it.
“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” Dorsey tweeted.
Of course, it’s easy for Dorsey to say that nobody should own Twitter now that he’s got his money. Dorsey’s net worth is estimated to be roughly $US7.3 ($10) billion, something that never would’ve happened without private ownership over the platform he helped create.
Curiously, Dorsey went on to insist that current CEO Parag Agrawal was doing a great job and that his vision for the company was identical to Musk’s vision, something that’s simply untrue and obvious to anyone who’s followed Musk’s criticisms of current leadership.
“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 tweeted.
If you read Musk’s filings with the SEC, the billionaire Tesla CEO doesn’t agree with Dorsey that Twitter’s corporate leadership is on the right path. In fact, Musk has so little faith in the current management of Twitter that he threatened to sell his 9.2% of the company if his hostile takeover bid failed.
“If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” Musk said in documents filed with the SEC two weeks ago.
“This is not a threat,” Musk said threateningly in his SEC filing. “It’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.”
But even if Dorsey and Musk don’t necessarily agree on who should lead Twitter, they clearly have similar approaches to the platform. The difference with Musk might be that he’s much more petty than Dorsey, regularly blocking people he doesn’t agree with on the platform, whereas Dorsey seems to take criticism in stride.
“I’m so happy Twitter will continue to serve the public conversation. Around the world, and into the stars!” Dorsey tweeted, finishing up his thread.