Elon Musk’s texts with Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal detail tumultuous Twitter negotiations

A tranche of Elon Musk’s private messages have been made public as part of his ongoing lawsuit with Twitter. The messages, revealed in a Thursday, shed new light on Musk’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter’s leadership, as well discussions with former CEO Jack Dorsey, and how Musk’s talks with CEO Parag Agrawal quickly soured.

The messages include the moment Musk tells Agrawal he wants to acquire Twitter and take it private, rather than join the board. Agrawal confronts Musk about an April 9th questioning if “Twitter is dying.”

Agrawal writes to Musk:

You are free to tweet “is Twitter dying?” or anything else about Twitter – but it’s my responsibility to tell you that it’s not helping me make Twitter better in the current context. Next time we speak, I’d like to you provide you [sic] perspective on the level of the internal distraction right now and how it [sic] hurting our ability to do work. I hope the AMA will help people get to know you, to understand why you believe in Twitter, and to trust you – and I’d like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and don’t get distracted but we aren't there right now.

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Маск відповів менше ніж через хвилину. «Що ви зробили цього тижня? Я не приєднуюся до ради. Це марна трата часу. Зроблю пропозицію зробити Twitter приватним».

Twitter board chair Bret Taylor followed up with Musk a few minutes later asking to talk. “Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag won’t work,” Musk tells Taylor. “Drastic action is needed. This is hard to do as a public company, as purging fake users will make the numbers look terrible, so restructuring should be done as a private company. This is Jack’s opinion too.”

The messages also provide a glimpse into the relationship between Dorsey and Musk. Dorsey has that “Elon is the singular solution I trust,” but hasn’t publicly commented since Musk sued in an attempt to renege on the acquisition.

But in the newly released messages, it’s clear Dorsey has wanted Musk to take on an active role at Twitter for some time. Dorsey tells Musk that he wanted him to join Twitter’s board of directors long before Musk acquired a large stake in the company.

«Коли до нас прийшов активіст, я з усіх сил намагався залучити вас до нашої ради, і наша рада сказала «ні». Приблизно тоді я вирішив, що мені потрібно попрацювати, щоб піти, хоч мені це було важко», — каже Дорсі. «Я вважаю, що головна причина в тому, що рада директорів просто не схильна до ризику і сприйняла додавання вас як більший ризик, що, на мою думку, було абсолютно дурним і протилежним, але я мав лише один голос і 3% компанії, і жодних акцій подвійного класу. Важке налаштування. Ми можемо обговорити більше».

Dorsey seemed to be referring to the activist investor that attempted Dorsey in early 2020.

Notably, this conversation occurred in late March, after Musk had a multibillion-dollar stake in Twitter, but before his stake had been made . He and Dorsey also discussed the Twitter cofounder’s belief that Twitter “can’t be a company.”

Dorsey writes to Musk:

Я вважаю, що це має бути протокол з відкритим вихідним кодом, який фінансується певною основою, яка не володіє протоколом, а лише просуває його. Трохи схоже на те, що зробив Signal. Він не може мати рекламну модель. Інакше у вас є площа, на яку уряди та рекламодавці намагатимуться впливати та контролювати. Якщо за ним стоїть централізована сутність, його атакуватимуть. Це не складна робота, її просто потрібно зробити правильно, щоб вона була стійкою до того, що сталося з твіттером.

Musk responds that the idea is “super interesting” and that “it’s worth both trying to move Twitter in a better direction and doing something new that’s decentralized.”

The following month, Dorsey also attempted to play mediator between Musk and Agrawal, at one point arranging a call between the three of them. “You and I are in complete agreement,” Musk tells Dorsey. “Parag is just moving far too slowly and trying to please people who will not be happy no matter what he does.”

“At least it became clear that you can’t work together,” Dorsey later responds. “That was clarifying.”