If attendees at Twitter’s annual shareholders’ meeting hoped to clear up the confusion surrounding Elon Musk’s takeover of the company, they likely left disappointed. Despite numerous questions about Twitter’s future, the company’s executives had little to say about Musk, who did not attend the meeting.
“We are engaged in the transaction process,” said CEO Parag Agrawal during the meeting. The status of the deal has been somewhat unclear since Musk announced it was “on hold” due to concerns about bots on the platform. Twitter executives have maintained that they are going ahead with their plans.
“Even as we work towards closing this transaction, our teams and I remain focused on the important work we do every day to serve the public conversation,” Agrawal said.
Twitter had said ahead of the meeting that it would not answer questions regarding Musk’s acquisition of the company, which must be formally approved by Twitter shareholders at a later date. Still, shareholders tried to get Twitter executives to address the issue. The very first question in the Q&A portion of the meeting asked what will happen to Twitter stockholders’ stock if “someone” buys the company and takes it private. “We can’t answer these questions today,” said Sean Edgett, Twitter’s General Counsel, referring people to the company’s previous SEC filings.
Shareholders also asked questions about the future of the company’s content moderation policy. Agrawal said the company remains “focused” on existing policies and “reducing our reliance on user reports.” While he did not directly address comments Musk has made about relaxing the rules, he said that “silencing political commentary goes against our commitment to free speech.”
The meeting also marks the end of co-founder Jack Dorsey’s tenure at Twitter. He had stepped down as CEO in November, but remained on the board of directors until the meeting. As with much of Twitter’s future, it’s unclear who will succeed him.
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