Twitter on Monday reached an agreement with activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp to buy back $2 billion of its shares, partially funded through a $1 billion investment from the private equity company Silver Lake, the company said.
As per the agreement, the company will add two new board members Egon Durban, co-CEO of Silver Lake, and Jesse Cohn, a partner at Elliott Management, but Jack Dorsey will remain as the company’s CEO.
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In addition, the Twitter Board will continue the process of identifying a third new independent director, focusing on candidates that reflect the diversity of the Twitter service and also possess deep technology and AI expertise.
“Silver Lake’s investment in Twitter is a strong vote of confidence in our work and our path forward. They are one of the most respected voices in technology and finance and we are fortunate to have them as our new partner and as a member of our Board,” Dorsey said in a statement.
“We welcome the support of Egon and Jesse, and look forward to their positive contributions as we continue to build a service that delivers for customers, and drives value for stakeholders,” he added.
The agreement fell short of the initial intention by the Elliott Management Corp to remove Dorsey.
Dorsey’s stay, who returned to the company as CEO in 2015, raised questions among the investors as he is also the CEO of his mobile payments firm Square Inc, another company he founded. Additionally, his tweets highlighting his intentions to move to Africa for six months in mid-2020 added fuel to the fire.
As per the reports, Twitter has drastically reshaped its approach to the capital markets in order to save Dorsey’s position in the company. This is the first time when Twitter has purchased its share of stock, FactSet research stated.
Twitter also shared its ambitions for two metrics which are important measures of the company’s progress.
The ambition in 2020 and beyond is to grow monetizable daily active users (mDAU) at 20 per cent or more, and looking beyond 2020, to accelerate revenue growth on a year-over-year basis and gain share in the digital advertising market as Twitter continues to invest to drive growth.
More details on these ambitions will be shared at an analyst day in the fall of 2020, Twitter said.
As per the terms of the cooperation agreement, neither Elliott nor Silver Lake will comment on or influence or attempt to influence, directly or indirectly any Twitter policies or rules, or policy or rule enforcement decisions, related to the Twitter platform.
Elliott and Silver Lake further commit to, and emphasise the importance of, maintaining the independence and impartiality of the Twitter platform and its rules and enforcement, Twitter said.
Elliott Management’s affiliated funds own approximately four per cent of Twitter’s common stock and economic equivalents.
(With input from agencies)