Before making a bid to buy Twitter, Elon Musk gave some thought to launching his own social media company.
A new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission from Twitter says that on March 27, Musk met with CEO Parag Agrawal and chairman Bret Taylor to discuss, among other things, Musk joining the board. But they learned a bit more at that meeting, too.
“As part of that discussion, Mr. Musk stated that he was considering various options with respect to his ownership, including potentially joining the Twitter Board, seeking to take Twitter private or starting a competitor to Twitter,” the filing says.
Agrawal, on April 5, announced Musk would be joining the board, but that soon fell apart. Later that month, Musk made a hostile offer, which was accepted by the company on April 25. In recent days, though, that bid has appeared less certain.
Musk repeated his consideration to start a competitor in a follow-up meeting with Agrawal and Taylor four days after their initial meeting, the new filing says.
There’s no indication whether Musk will revive that possibility should the Twitter deal fall through.
But if he does, of course, he won’t be the first to do so, of course. Donald Trump, after being permanently banned from Twitter, announced Truth Social, a competing social media forum, which stumbled out of the gate, but has been embraced by many on the far right.
Musk has said he would reverse Twitter’s Trump ban if he takes over, but a recent SEC filing shows that Trump’s deal with Digital World Acquisition Corp handcuffs him from posting on Twitter. Trump is obligated to make any social medial post to Truth Social first, the filing revealed, and then wait at least six hours before posting it on another social site.
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