Twitter’s $44 billion takeover has been punctuated by public clashes between two executives with wildly different styles: brash, outspoken billionaire Elon Musk and the social media company’s more measured and diplomatic chief Parag Agrawal.
Musk has publicly pushed Twitter’s lesser-known leader on the social media platform and has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the deal, citing concerns about data from fake accounts.
Backed into a corner less than a year into his tenure, the enigmatic Agrawal has begun fighting with officials and the public, according to multiple current and former officials who spoke to the Financial Times on condition of anonymity.
“Parag wants to come back more and is more aggressive internally,” said one former Twitter executive. “It looks like Twitter is ready to go to war to get this deal done.”
Behind closed doors, navigating the relationship seems less busy. The two interact weekly in discussions that are calm rather than hostile, according to people familiar with the situation. They naturally agree on a host of issues about how the company should be run, two people said — including the need to diversify revenue, build a larger audience and even relax moderation rules to move away from permanent bans.
However, Agrawal’s critics are skeptical about how effective he will be as an unproven leader in the face of an unpredictable opponent. Many cited the 38-year-old’s lack of leadership experience and the fact that his negotiating hand would be weakened if Twitter’s business began to deteriorate given the uncertainty.
“Parag is in an impossible situation,” said Brian Weiser, global president of business intelligence at GroupM. “We still don’t know how serious Elon is many months later, but the company is committed to the sale.”
Indian-born Agrawal rose through Twitter’s ranks over the past decade and was named CEO in November after four years as chief technology officer. He joined after completing a PhD from Stanford University, interspersed with research internships at Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T.
As the company’s first “distinguished engineer”—a title that confers great status in elite engineering circles—his intellect has earned him internal respect.
“My experience with Parag was impressed by his mastery of detail and broad understanding of problems that other leaders would overcome,” said Bruce Daisley, Twitter’s former European vice president.
Emulating Silicon Valley founders like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, the soft-spoken Agrawal wears the same outfit to work every day—a black T-shirt and navy blue jeans—in keeping with the dogma that minimalism yields extra productivity. At a private dinner for tech executives hosted by Salesforce chief Marc Benioff in May, Agrawal took to the floor to defend himself, according to two people familiar with the situation. Afterward, impressed guests lined up to talk to him, one person said.
Unlike his predecessor as CEO, quirky founder Jack Dorsey, Agrawal has been more of an unknown quantity beyond the walls of Twitter and exclusive Silicon Valley dinner parties, making few public appearances and little use of the platform itself in his first few months in the role .
“Parag feels more like an engineer put in charge of a product than someone who has a vision,” said one advertising agency executive. “Twitter needs a leader who will step up and make Twitter a market presence.”
As a result, he faced skepticism from some board members, particularly about his lack of experience as the head of a public company or leading large teams. According to several people, the board chose to administer a poison pill early in the negotiations in part to buy time so they could better understand Agrawal and his business plan for Twitter, as well as consult with investors.
Some investors have expressed concerns about whether Agrawal can successfully execute his plan and have therefore pushed for a deal, two of the people said.
The board also discussed whether to allow Musk to make his offer directly to shareholders, but rejected that option in favor of negotiating the terms of the deal and deliberately building in some safeguards and defenses to keep Musk from changing his mind.
Agrawal and other board members have publicly expressed their willingness to pursue the deal at $54.20 per share, as agreed with Musk. The San Francisco-based company has told employees it expects to hold a shareholder vote on the deal by early August.
But this can still be a challenge. Musk disputed Twitter’s estimate that less than 5 percent of accounts on its platform were spam, threatening to pull out of the deal if that could not be proven. The maneuver was interpreted by pundits and Twitter staff as Tesla’s boss seeking leverage in negotiations or an excuse to try to scrap the deal entirely.
Last month, Twitter agreed to allow Musk access to the “firehose” of publicly available tweet data it normally sells to social media monitoring companies — a move that some saw as Agrawal calling Musk’s bluff.
“Opening of [data trove] is a classic Parag show-off move — “we’re not going to blink, we’ve got nothing to hide,” said another former Twitter executive.
But on Thursday, The Washington Post reported that Musk’s team had concluded that the data could not be verified, raising questions about his next move.
So far, Musk has not directly raised the issue of renegotiating the terms of the deal with Agrawal, according to a person familiar with the situation and confirmed in an email from Musk. Twitter declined to comment.
Agrawal’s success may depend in part on whether he can keep the business financially sound so as not to give Musk negotiating leverage.
Twitter has been criticized for slow growth, sluggish product innovation and a struggling advertising business amid a broader market slowdown. Its 2021 revenue is $5 billion, compared to Meta’s $118 billion in sales. In its most recent quarterly earnings, the company admitted that it had overstated its audience figures by almost 2 million users over about three years.
After an initially low-key start, Agrawal has been more vocal and is in the office several days a week, three people with knowledge of the operations said, and recently toured several global headquarters. His focus is on overhauling Twitter’s governance structure to encourage better productivity and faster product deployments in areas such as commerce.
In May, he decided to freeze hiring and implement cost-cutting measures. It also fired two popular senior executives in charge of advertising and product, shocking some employees — though others noted the moves came after consumer and revenue targets were missed.
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He has been forthright with staff rather than trying to placate them, an approach that has won loyal longtime employees but unsettled new hires, several employees said.
If the deal goes through, Agrawal will likely be out of a job as Musk plans to replace him, according to media reports.
Still, Agrawal has multiple incentives to honor the agreement beyond saving face and avoiding a potential escalation to the courts. He will walk away with a $60.1 million golden parachute if he is fired as part of the acquisition, according to regulatory filings.
On the other hand, if the sale falls through, he could be tasked with reviving a company with depressed stock prices and low employee morale.
“They hang over a void. Because if the deal falls apart, the stock will collapse [and] then you’re looking at significant staff reductions, you have to downsize,” said a former executive. Another former executive said he believed Agrawal was willing to be a “sacrificial lamb” for the company.
Additional reporting by Christina Criddle in London
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