Twitter’s poison-pill-swallowing board is coming under some fire.
Yahoo Finance ran an interesting interview with former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt.
Given his former role, he notes that, from a regulatory perspective, Musk’s approach to his accumulation of a stake in Twitter had not been . . . ideal.
First, he filed the wrong form, and then he filed the correct form late. That meant that a lot of the investors in the marketplace had no knowledge that he was an aggressive investor, instead of being a passive investor, as he had originally asserted. I think, in addition, the way he has posed this bid will cause regulatory scrutiny.
That may well be true, but it’s worth noting that Pitt added this:
And I think it’s also fair to say that, by and large, this administration is probably not terribly enamored of Mr. Musk winding up acquiring Twitter. And that’s going to be a problem he will face as well.
That’s a comment that says quite a bit about our democracy.
Turning to how Twitter’s board is handling this, Pitt doesn’t seem altogether impressed:
BRIAN SOZZI: Harvey, what grade would you give Twitter’s board of directors so far?
HARVEY PITT: I give Twitter’s board an F. I believe that under the circumstances, they needed to check out whether this was a real bid. And if it were a real bid, then they needed to do what’s in the best interest of their shareholders. This is a price that hadn’t been seen in quite some time.
And there are many who believe that the price overvalues the company. Now there are differences of views on that. But the fact of the matter is, the number is at least within a legitimate frame of reference. And the board’s unwillingness to treat it seriously, it strikes me, gives it a very poor grade.
Former Twitter CEO and current (although for not much longer; he doesn’t plan to stay on after his term expires in May) board member Jack Dorsey appears to have some thoughts about the board too.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey criticized the company’s board in a series of tweets on Sunday as the group is now tasked with evaluating a takeover bid from billionaire Elon Musk.
Responding to another Twitter user describing the “plots and coups” that played out early on in the history of Twitter’s board, Dorsey replied, “it’s consistently been the dysfunction of the company.”
Earlier, he responded to another tweet in the same thread. It quoted venture capitalist Fred Destin citing what he called a “Silicon Valley proverb”: “Good boards don’t create good companies, but a bad board will kill a company every time.”
Dorsey responded, “big facts.”
A little opaque, but not, I feel, entirely supportive.
Meanwhile Twitter’s stock was up 7.48 percent yesterday, so there’s that.