Parag Agrawal: Twitter’s unlucky CEO, victim in Elon Musk’s ‘sunshine and rain’ battle

Tram Ho

When Parag Agrawal took over as CEO at Twitter last November following the sudden departure of founder Jack Dorsey, hardly anyone outside the company knew about him.

But just 10 months later, Agrawal’s name was spread all over the newspapers when Twitter encountered countless groves, scandals and most especially, a legal battle with billionaire Elon Musk. After reaching an agreement to buy back this social network at 54.2 USD/share with a total value of 44 billion USD, Elon Musk suddenly wanted to “turn the car around” and create a long legal battle. become a laughing stock for the media.

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CEO Parag Agrawal

With Twitter, this social network initially did not want to sell to Elon Musk, the billionaire famous for his shocking statements. But the price offered by the founder of Tesla was too good and they agreed, and then when Elon Musk flipped the deal, the company tried to sue and hold on to this agreement.

In the end, CNN reported that Elon Musk had accepted to return to the $44 billion settlement after a two-week trial.

This is good news for Twitter shareholders, but quite troubling news for CEO Agrawal because if Twitter changes hands, he will have to work under the billionaire he used to spend months arguing and suing. on court. Worse, Agrawal’s return to a settlement that benefits Twitter shareholders could be a written dismissal.

No

According to CNN, Agrawal is perhaps one of the most iconic CEOs in Wall Street history. This director must inherit the legacy from an impulsive founder who announced his sudden departure without warning.

Twitter under the management of Agrawal has also encountered numerous troubles, in addition to the legal battle with Elon Musk, this social network has also encountered many scandals, while the macroeconomic situation is making advertising and revenue streams difficult. The company’s core profits fell.

CNN reported that despite working for many years at Twitter, Agrawal was originally a technical director before becoming CEO. The director himself has never run a company, let alone famous brands in the world like Twitter.

“I think Agrawal was brought to the leadership position because they thought things were going to go according to plan,” said Columbia Business School professor Bill Klepper, adding that nothing has followed in the past year. Exactly Twitter’s plan.

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Despite the troubles, Agrawal has successfully developed more for Twitter as well as launched many new applications. However, CNN is still skeptical about CEO Agrawal’s ability to stay at Twitter for another year because if he is not fired by billionaire Elon Musk, the shareholder council may also fire him for not completing the agreement. agreement $44 billion.

“I’m sure he’d come home at night with his hands up and think, ‘What the hell am I getting into,'” Professor Klepper said with a laugh.

Quarrel

According to CNN, Agrawal’s task earlier this year was quite difficult. The company aims to add 100 million active users by 2023, 45% higher than the fourth quarter of 2021, and raise revenue to $7.5 billion, up from $5 billion in 2021. During that time, Twitter also launched a paid subscription service Twitter Blue and a number of other projects related to cryptocurrencies.

Twitter’s biggest difficulty at that time was not fully taking advantage of the customer file to increase revenue according to its inherent potential.

Then billionaire Elon Musk appeared.

In March 2022, the Tesla founder approached Jack Dorsey even though he had left the CEO position of Twitter, and then Elon Musk met with the board of directors as well as Agrawal to talk about capital contribution. At this point, Twitter has accepted Elon Musk for a seat on the executive board.

A few days later, Elon Musk tweeted: “Is Twitter dying?”. Agrawal immediately sent a message to the Tesla founder that these expressions were causing the CEO many difficulties.

“You are free to post complaints about Twitter, but I am obliged to say that these posts do not help me make Twitter better. In our next talk, I’ll provide an inside scoop and how it affects our ability to work. I would have liked the company to be a calm, non-disturbing environment for employees, but unfortunately that’s not the case,” CEO Agrawal’s messages were revealed during last week’s trial between Elon Musk and Twitter.

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Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey

In response, the Tesla founder texted harshly: “What have you done this week…I won’t be on the board, it’s a waste of time.”

After refusing to sit on the board of directors, Elon Musk suddenly offered to buy back Twitter for $54.2 per share, a price much higher than the market. Then a month later, this billionaire again demanded to cancel the contract because Twitter falsely reported the number of fake accounts in existence. In response, this social network sued Elon Musk to court for breach of contract.

In this context, CEO Agrawal must both reassure shareholders, advertisers and employees about a billion-dollar deal, while also having to argue with Elon Musk, who could become his boss later, to protect Twitter’s image protection.

In May 2022, Elon Musks entered Agrawal, there was a heated controversy on Twitter. CEO Agrawal posted an article explaining how the number of fake accounts is calculated and how the company has gone to great lengths to track them, but Elon Musk only responded with a poop icon.

CNN reported that in such a context, even if Twitter forces Elon Musk to comply with a $44 billion contract, it is likely that Agrawal will not be able to stay in office because he has upset the future boss.

Discord

In April 2022, in a message to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk expressed his opinion that he could not work with Agrawal.

“Agrawal is too slow and is just trying to please everyone, who will not be satisfied no matter what he does,” Elon Musk texted.

CNN reported that if Elon Musk took over Twitter and Agrawal had to leave, the CEO would receive tens of millions of dollars in compensation along with other Twitter stock options.

With Elon Musk reaching an agreement with Twitter to cancel the $44 billion deal, the story is not brighter for Agrawal. According to Professor Klepper, Twitter’s stock will plummet and shareholders will need money to restructure the company.

“They will have to do a lot of work, but the first thing they will do is find a new CEO with more experience,” said Professor Klepper.

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Source : Genk