successfully purchased 9% of Twitter’s shares. After being offered a seat on the board of directors, which Musk has since denied, Twitter initiates a response to attempt to discourage a hostile takeover. After a lawsuit, a counter-lawsuit, and a trial, Musk takes on the CEO position on October 28, 2022. He then fired the entire board of directors, making himself the sole member, and let go half of Twitter’s payroll, including many who fight misinformation and hateful content. This hostile takeover also led to advertisers pulling out due to the uncertainty of Twitter’s future. In mid-November, the world was informed of Twitter’s new ‘blue tick’ policy which ultimately allowed users to pay for official status. This decision led to be detrimental for some – including pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly who was impersonated, tweeting that their insulin would hereby be free. Investors were outraged at this decision, which ultimately lead to a momentary yet dramatic fall in their stock price. After the evident failure of the ‘blue tick’, Twitter’s software engineers became increasingly vocal about their opinions of the company which led to Musk firing one after a public argument on Twitter and terminating the contracts of twenty others. Musk also announced that remote working was no longer offered at Twitter and made a mass-email announcement to the current workforce that employees needed to increase their workload The key to corporate success is good corporate governance. Any CEO worth their salt is a humble leader with eager, engaged, and educated critics at board level to keep decisions in check. Inversely, ego, inexperience and unwavering control are red flags. Despite warning signs and countless examples of failing businesses due to poor governance, recent media headlines have been saturated with celebrity CEO downfalls relating to poor governance. Most notably, Elon Musk. Musk has been a keymedia subject over the past months with his disastrous takeover of Twitter. With the initial acquisition concluding on October 28, 2022, by December 19, 2022, Musk had promised to resign once an acceptable replacement had been found. Within this short time, Twitter acquired numerous lawsuits, lost advertisers, investors, and employees, and in the end, even fended off rumours of potential bankruptcy. The cause of this detrimental turn of events can be sourced to a man with a large ego who has an unhealthy obsession with his social media fame. These negative traits have created a textbook example of how celebrity CEOs make poor decisions in corporate governance, which inevitably lead to failure. The Twitter Fiasco On April 5, 2022, Elon Musk discloses to the media he has 26 THE DISRUPTORS “Musk is a clear example of the worstcase scenario for governance.”
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