Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says “it all went south” when Elon Musk bought the social media company, saying Musk’s timing was bad and he should have backed out of the deal.
Dorsey was questioned Friday by users on his new upstart app “Bluesky” whether he still believes Musk is the best owner for Twitter. To Business Insider, Dorsey issued a categorical denial.
“No. I don’t think he acted properly after realizing his timing was bad,” Dorsey wrote.
When the $44 billion deal appeared to fall through, Twitter’s board threatened to sue Musk to force the deal. Dorsey said the board’s attempt to force the sale was also a bad idea.
“It all went south,” Dorsey wrote.
“If Elon or anyone wanted to buy the company, all they had to do was specify a price that the board felt was higher than what the company could do independently,” he continued.
“This applies to all public institutions. Was I optimistic? Yes. Do I have to say finally? No. I think he is [Musk] Should have walked away and paid $1b.
Under his original deal to buy Twitter, Musk could have walked away if he had paid a $1 billion break-up fee.
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Since acquiring Twitter last October, Musk has come under fire for several new policies.
In addition to instituting draconian layoffs, Musk has required people to pay for blue-collar check marks, rolled back protections against hate speech, and, until recently, began labeling some media outlets as “government sponsored.”
That latter decision was reversed after an international coalition of broadcasters published an open letter on Twitter calling on four foreign news agencies to correct the “misbranding” used.
These changes may have contributed to Dorsey’s sour feelings toward the Tesla owner.
His comments were a reversal from what Dorsey called last year, “a separate solution I believe” to taking Twitter personally. He said at the time that Musk’s plan to make Twitter “more trustworthy and more inclusive” was “perfect.”
Dorsey’s new platform, Bluesky, is positioning itself as a Twitter competitor.
The platform has been generating buzz in recent weeks as an exclusive invitation-only alternative to the Musk-led forum. It’s been trending on Twitter for the past week, and features some big name converts like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and model Chrissy Teigen.
