Bret Taylor, Steady Hand in the Twitter Storm
As Twitter’s board chair, Taylor led the effort to force Elon Musk to honor his agreement to buy the company for $44 billion—first negotiating with him, then suing him, then pushing the deal across the finish line in October.
Photo illustration: 731; photo: Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg
In April, Elon Musk sent a letter to Bret Taylor proposing to buy Twitter Inc. at a sizable premium above its recent share price. It was before the tech market downturn, and he had to make a compelling bid. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” wrote Musk, a prolific tweeter who saw the company as an underachieving business that could be a haven for what he called “free speech.” Eventually, Twitter said yes.
Taylor, who co-created Google Maps and invented the Facebook “like” button, was occupied with his primary job as co-CEO of Salesforce Inc. when he suddenly found himself at the center of one of the most contentious deals in history. Almost immediately after the agreement was signed, Musk started complaining about bots and spam on the site, claiming the company had lied to him about the size of its user base. He tried to walk away.