Company Not Held Hostage By Elon Musk Takeover Offer, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal Tells Staff

Agrawal asked employees to remain focused and told them "we as employees control what happens," according to news agency Reuters.

Microblogging site Twitter (Getty Image)

New Delhi: After Tesla chief Elon Musk offered a $43 billion cash takeover offer to microblogging site Twitter on Thursday, its chief executive officer Parag Agrawal reassured employees that the company was not being "held hostage" by the bid, according to news agency Reuters.

Responding to the employees on queries that were posted on the company's Slack messaging service, Agrawal asked employees to remain focused and told them "we as employees control what happens," according to the source.

Sharing his views on the proposed takeover, Agrawal said the board was continuing to review Musk's offer, but that he was limited in what he could share with the employees.

While responding to the question and answer session, one employee asked how the company arrived to the decision to offer Musk a board seat.

"Are we just going to start inviting any and all billionaires to the board?" as per the section of the meeting heard by Reuters.

Agrawal replied that the board was acting in the best interest of shareholders. "I have a strong point of view that people who are critical of our service, their voice is something that we must emphasize so that we can learn and get better," he said.

On asked how he viewed Musk's definition of free speech and whether it aligned with how Twitter looks at the concept.

Agrawal, who did not directly address the question, said much of the company's work was focused on continuously improving "the health of conversation" on Twitter.

Earlier in the Q&A, Agrawal said he believed "Twitter stands for way more than one human, any human."