Parag Agarwal, Twitter’s chief executive officer, wanted to reassure employees during an all-out meeting on Thursday that the company was not being “held hostage” by news of Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
As well as taking questions from employees posted on Agarwal’s company slack messaging service, he encouraged employees to be attentive and told them “as employees we control what happens,” the source said, noting those who did not want to be identified. Talk about it publicly.
The meeting came after news spread that Tesla’s chief executive had offered to buy the social media company for 43 43 billion (approximately Rs 3,29,280 crore).
Agarwal told staff that the board was reviewing Mask’s offer, but was limited to what he could share with staff.
In a Q&A session, an employee asked how the company had decided to give Musk a board seat.
“Are we going to start inviting any and all billionaires on board?” According to a part of the meeting heard by Reuters.
Agrawal responded that the board was working in the best interests of the shareholders.
“I have a strong view that the voices of people who criticize our services are something we must emphasize so that we can learn and get better,” he said.
Another employee submitted a question to Agarwal about how he sees the definition of freedom of speech and how Twitter communicates the idea.
Agarwal did not directly address the question, saying that much of the company’s work was focused on continuously improving the “health of conversation” on Twitter.
Earlier in the Q&A session, Agarwal said he believed “Twitter means more than one person, any person.”
A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.
Thomson Reuters 2022