Thread by @davepell

1/ I boycotted Twitter the day they accepted Elon’s offer to purchase the company. Now that I’m back I’d like to provide a brief overview of how Twitter users and investors were betrayed, what makes me think this was all a set up, and why the current CEO and board must go.

2/ First, I'm glad the deal fell through and Elon won't turn Twitter into his latest personal dating app. His every utterance is front page news and our current system has made him the richest person alive, yet he wanted to buy Twitter because he's a victim with limited speech.

3/ We know why Elon (pretended) to try to buy Twitter. The bigger issue here is why, with the enthusiastic backing of Jack, the Twitter board accepted that offer.

Let's start with the hiring of Parag Agrawal as CEO. Why would a complex media company hire an engineer at the top?

4/ I wondered that at the time. It made no sense given Twitter's major editorial decisions that were being targeted by governments around the world. It made no sense until Elon made the offer and a newbie CEO with an engineering background was left to go toe to toe with Musk.

5/ When Jack suddenly loved the deal (suddenly to us, anyway), the whole thing felt like a SET UP. Jack steps down. An inexperienced CEO steps in. Elon makes the offer. Jack backs that offer. Board goes along even though the price was meh and...

6/ ... even though Elon is precisely the kind of troll the company has spent years trying to deal with and is a person with zero cultural overlap with Twitter's values. It's all pretty interesting, don't you think? Of course, the tech media rarely asks hard follow up questions...

7/ For example, everyone seemed fine when Jack proclaimed, "Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness."

Well, Jack. Turn out the lights, the solution is over.

Wouldn't it have been worthwhile to ask Jack a simple question:

8/ If Elon was the singular solution for Twitter, then why did you go on as CEO for so many years - a clear implication to users and markets that you were pretty sure you were a solution for the company?

In fact, you were so sure that you took on the CEO role as a second job.

9/ And to the Twitter board, I ask, why did you stick with a part time CEO through the entire Trump era when Twitter was clearly the most influential media brand on the planet, but when it also somehow failed to reap the market cap benefits one associates with that position?

10/ But then that CEO stepped down and mumbled some gibberish about the light of consciousness and you were ready to sell out your users and your employees for a lowball price to a notorious creep who tweeted a few whacky ideas that seemed simplistic, wrong, or both?

11/ All of this doesn't add up as anything other than a weird, misguided set up. So far, Parag Agrawal's main achievements have been to fire a couple of key, top people (in the middle of all this nonsense), to get rolled over in a negotiation, and to have his board agree that...

12/ ... yes, a few months into his tenure, it was true that Elon Musk is, as Jack stated, "the singular solution I trust." Parag got played. But now, as everyone and the market saw coming, Jack got played too. Light that one up in your consciousness and smoke it.

13/ Meanwhile, the people tasked with making sure its execs don't get played fell right into line on a deal that was bad for users and investors, and seriously lifted the worldwide level of acid reflux. Think about. The market never bought Elon's offer. But these insiders did.

14/ Twitter must finally hire a full-time CEO who will roll out obvious features and improvements in a timely manner—and who is able to manage the incredible complexities of social media moderation in an age of chaos. That person exists. But they won't work for this board... End.