Executives who are not exactly known for hard-core reputations or being tough in general typically shy away from making bombastic threats of how they will now combat seemingly superior foes. 

Not Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s meek and soft-spoken former head engineer and now CEO, who vowed that he is willing to “go to war” to make sure Elon Musk follows through on his $44 billion acquisition of the deal. 

Let’s break his declaration of war down and see if there’s a potential hidden agenda in it. 

For one thing, Agrawal is set to take home $42 million if the deal closes.  Not bad for a CEO universally regarded as a non-elite executive who’s had the top job less than a year. 

The Financial Times has reported that his overall docile persona and lack of vision have made the Twitter board of directors feel they do not have a leader in place with the ability to go toe to toe with Musk, who’s been needling Agrawal repeatedly on Twitter since for the past two months. 

Do you remember when Agrawal tried to defend his company’s efforts to get rid of bot and spam accounts in May? And Musk hit him back with a poop emoji?  

It will be interesting to see what happens next.  Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter would have him paying $54.20 a share, but after he pulled out of the deal at the end of last week, the stock price is down to $36.81.

1 comment

  • There will be no war. It’s all about a number. Twitter doesn’t want full discovery and a trial after 4 years of legal delays.
    There have been 12 recessions since WWII. So, you have to ask what the stock price will be in 18 to 24 months. Elon may have broken Twitter, they are not positioned to move into Web 3.0 and they continue to shed users.