Techweb reported on April 6 that the US social media platform twitter announced on Tuesday local time that Tesla CEO Elon Musk would join the company's board of directors. The day before, musk was exposed to have bought more than 9% of twitter shares and became its largest shareholder. Analysts and investors are trying to figure out what this means for twitter and how much influence he has on twitter. No privilege will be treated equally Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and co-founder Jack Dorsey welcomed musk to the company's board of directors. Agrawal wrote on Twitter: "he is both an enthusiastic supporter and a strong critic of the service, which is what we need on Twitter and the board to make us stronger in the long term. Welcome, Elon!" Twitter said that even if musk gets a seat on the board, he will not be given special treatment on the platform. A twitter spokesman said the platform was "committed to formulating and implementing its policies and rules fairly", which means musk will be bound by the same rules as others. In other words, twitter may still ban or suspend musk posts if necessary. Speaking of Musk's potential impact, a twitter spokesman said musk and other board members had no right to formulate company policies. "Our policy decisions are not made by the board of directors or shareholders. Although the board of directors plays an important role in guidance and feedback, daily operations and decisions are made by twitter management and employees," the spokesman added Make specific provisions to limit influence Musk disclosed the increase of twitter equity through the regulatory filing documents submitted to the sec. This indicates that this is a "passive stake", which usually means that the holder has not tried to control or influence the company. But that may change. In the future, musk may choose to "take an active stake" and play a more important role in the company. If he does, he will need to file a document to inform the SEC and state his intention. The twitter Board currently has 11 members, and musk will become the 12th member, at least until Dorsey leaves office next month. But in terms of power, this means that he needs the strong support of other board members and shareholders to ensure that his proposal is approved. Tom Hayes, chairman of great hill capital, said: "Musk may become active at any time. I think it's a proactive approach for Twitter to let Musk on the board before he asks." Twitter has set terms for Musk's appointment to the board, which may limit his influence. According to the document, as long as musk remains on the twitter board, or after 90 days, he shall not hold more than 14.9% of twitter shares. In addition, musk can only serve as a secondary director until 2024. "I think they set this condition because they don't want musk to have unrestricted control over the company," Hayes said It is unclear how much musk will focus on twitter. In addition to leading Tesla, he is also the CEO of Rocket Company SpaceX and brain computer interface company neuralink. Push twitter to make major changes? Howard Fischer, a partner at Moses Singh law firm in New York and a former sec lawyer, said: "it's good for a company to announce profits, but it seems better to have a relationship with musk. Musk may not improve Twitter's operating environment, or increase revenue or reduce debt, but it can bring huge returns in the stock market." Regardless of its financial impact, one thing is certain: it seems that musk has more influence over the company he is often criticized overnight. He has about 80 million followers on twitter, many of whom are loyal admirers of musk. Musk's intention on Twitter is unclear, but it may be that he did it on purpose. Musk had previously attacked Twitter's content censorship policy, claiming that the company failed to uphold the principle of freedom of speech. Musk also pushes twitter to create edit buttons and allows users to better control the tweets they see in the news feed. Youssef squali, an analyst at truist securities, suggested buying twitter shares. "I doubt musk will start relatively slowly, but then he will want to make some major changes and maybe move more towards freedom of speech. I think he doesn't care about user growth and other issues in the end," he said Twitter is no stranger to activist investors. In 2020, after Elliott management pushed Dorsey to step down, the company reached an agreement with the activist investor, including the introduction of a $1 billion investment from private equity firm Silver Lake and allowing Silver Lake and Elliott executives to get seats on the twitter board. Will musk buy Twitter as a whole? Wall Street analysts have begun to speculate about what musk might do with Twitter. Buy more shares? Get more board seats? Buy Twitter as a whole? Don Bilson, an analyst at Gordon haskett, wrote in a research report to clients: "use your imagination and we'll see. Will Dorsey like musk's idea of acquiring twitter, just like Jeff Bezos's acquisition of the Washington Post?" Hayes said he did not think musk was likely to seek a restructuring or private acquisition of twitter. "Musk now owns a large stake in twitter. As long as Twitter is willing to implement his idea, musk has no reason to want to take over the company. Twitter's rapid inclusion of Musk on the board shows that the company's leadership is at least willing to accept the billionaire's idea," he explained Musk is still likely to urge twitter to change its policies. Last month, he conducted a poll of twitter fans to ask whether the company "strictly abides by" the principle of freedom of speech. "Given that Twitter has become a de facto public city square, failure to adhere to the principle of freedom of speech fundamentally undermines democracy. What should we do?" Musk also accused the SEC of harassing his right to freedom of speech when monitoring his communication with shareholders, after he posted a tweet in 2018 suggesting that he had received funds to privatize Tesla. Squally said that if musk kept his promise of freedom of speech, any major change in his image of twitter could lead to the birth of a more controversial platform. He said that although disputes often attract consumers, they will disgust advertisers, which is something that the board of directors should be vigilant. Fisher, a former sec lawyer, said twitter management should be concerned about Musk's bad relationship with financial regulators, such as his many disputes with the sec. Fisher added: "if I were twitter, I would worry that Musk's joining would make twitter also attract the attention of the sec." (Xinhua News Agency)