Recently released text messages between Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal show how the billionaire's relationship with Agrawal rapidly imploded months before the social media company sued Musk for pulling out of the buyout agreement.
"You are free to tweet 'is Twitter dying?' or anything else about Twitter — but it's my responsibility to tell you that it's not helping me make Twitter better in the current context," Agrawal said in a text message to Musk that was sent on April 9.
"Next time we speak, I'd like to you [sic] provide you perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how it [is] hurting our ability to do work. I hope the AMA will help people get to know you, to understand why you believe in Twitter, and to trust you — and I'd like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and don't get distracted, but we aren't there right now," he wrote.
Musk responded in less than 2 minutes with a series of texts: "What did you get done this week? I'm not joining the board. This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private."
The billionaire's text came just four days after Agrawal had publicly announced that Musk would join Twitter's board. But Musk had been discussing plans to ditch the board offer and take Twitter private with some of his associates since at least April 4, according to the texts.
The text messages were revealed as a part of a trove of unredacted messages between Musk and several of Silicon Valley's most powerful players, including Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The messages are part of the pretrial discovery process in the court battle between Twitter and Musk to determine if Musk will be forced to go through with buying Twitter.
Both Musk and Agrawal will be deposed for the court case. The five-day trial that will determine whether Musk will be forced to buy Twitter is set to start on October 17.
Before the April 9 exchange, texts between Agrawal and Musk had appeared friendly.
"I have a ton of ideas, but lmk if I'm pushing too hard," Musk had texted Agrawal on April 7. "I just want Twitter to be maximum amazing."
"I want to hear all the ideas — and I'll tell you which ones I'll make progress on vs. not. And why," Agrawal responded.
Meanwhile, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey praised Agrawal in his texts to Musk.
"Parag is an incredible engineer," Dorsey wrote on April 5.
Even after the relationship turned sour, Dorsey organized a last-ditch effort to bring the two men together.
"I want to make sure Parag is doing everything possible to build towards your goals until close," Dorsey wrote on April 26, after the billionaire had already offered to buy the company for $44 billion.
"He is really great at getting things done when tasked with a specific direction. Would it make sense for me, you, and him to get on a call to discuss next steps amd get really clear on what's needed? He'd be able to move fast and clear then. Everyone is aligned and this will help even more," Dorsey wrote.
After the meeting, Dorsey appeared to acknowledge the two men would not see eye-to-eye.
"At least it became clear that you can't work together," Dorsey wrote later that same day. "That was clarifying."
Musk and Agrawal have since gone head-to-head. In May, Musk replied to a tweet from Agrawal regarding bots on the site with a poop emoji. The tweet was referenced in Twitter's lawsuit against Musk when he attempted to ditch the deal in July.
