Authors: METT O’BRIEN and RANDALL CHASE
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DOVER, Del. (AP) — Newly found textual content messages between Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal confirmed the 2 males briefly bonded within the spring over their love of engineering — not less than till Musk publicly tweeted this message early April 9: ” Is Twitter dying? ”
It soured a relationship that appeared to have flourished within the Twitter period supplied the billionaire CEO of Tesla a seat on the board after studying that he had purchased an enormous stake within the firm. Within the texts, Agrawal questioned Musk about his public criticism of Twitter, describing the feedback as unhelpful and disruptive throughout the firm.
“What did you do that week?” Musk responded curtly lower than a minute later. “I do not be a part of the board.” This can be a waste of time. They are going to make a suggestion to maintain Twitter non-public.”
The messages revealed in courtroom filings in Delaware forward of the high-stakes trial provide a window into Twitter’s delicate negotiations with Musk. On the time, the billionaire not solely invested closely in Twitter inventory, however publicly proposed concepts for enchancment or operating another.
Twitter and Musk are scheduled to seem in courtroom on Oct. 17 for a trial that may determine whether or not the world’s richest man might be pressured to finish his $44 billion buy of Twitter. The paperwork had been first revealed on @chanceri_daily, a Twitter account intently adopted by the Delaware courtroom, the place the five-day trial will happen.
“I’ve tons of concepts, but when I push too exhausting,” Musk texted Agrawal on April 7, shortly after Twitter supplied him a board seat. “I simply need Twitter to be as superb as doable.”
Agrawal urged Musk to “deal with me like an engineer” as a substitute of a CEO as they labored collectively on technical points. At one level, Musk wrote, “I really like our conversations!”
Two days after expressing Musk’s “Twitter is dying” tweet on April 11, Agrawal introduced Musk he wouldn’t be a part of the board in spite of everything. This was revealed by Twitter in a safety on April 14 Musk supplied to purchase the corporate instantly for about 44 billion {dollars}. After first attempting to thwart a hostile takeover, Twitter finally agreed to a deal on April 25.
The textual content exchanges had been included in redacted paperwork filed by Musk’s attorneys early Thursday after they disputed Twitter’s declare that they might not be made public as a result of they contained delicate data. A number of “public variations” of these Twitter paperwork include heavy redactions and are virtually fully blacked out. In distinction, the paperwork containing Musk and Agrawal’s texts weren’t.
The gathering of textual content messages additionally contains Musk’s conversations with Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO. Dorsey was keen about Musk’s involvement, telling him that whereas the board was “horrible,” Agrawal was an “superb engineer.”
The texts additionally embrace Musk’s opinions on Twitter with a bunch of individuals in his orbit, together with podcaster Joe Rogan, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, enterprise capitalists and Musk’s personal brother.
As attorneys argue over which paperwork might be allowed as proof at trial, extra witnesses are showing to testify.
Amongst these fired Thursday was whistleblower Peter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former safety chief who testified to Congress earlier this month about what he described as Twitter’s lax cyber defenses. Musk’s authorized workforce hopes that Zatko’s data of Twitter’s issues with pretend and spam accounts will strengthen Musk’s key case for termination.
Musk may very well be fired as early as subsequent week.
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O’Brien reported from Windfall, Rhode Island.