APRIL 11, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER at PowerLine:

ELON THE OUTSIDER

Elon Musk has 81 million Twitter followers, and he has used the platform to, among other things, criticize Twitter’s left-wing, anti-free speech practices. So the news that he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder with a 9 percent stake was seismic. It was soon followed by an invitation to join Twitter’s board of directors, which he initially seemed to accept. But on Saturday Musk announced that he was declining the offer of a board seat.

Why did he do that? As a member of Twitter’s board of directors, he would have had a fiduciary duty to the company that likely would have barred him from publicly criticizing it–e.g., on Twitter. Also, as a board member his ownership stakewould have been limitedto 14.9% of the company’s outstanding shares. By remaining an outsider, Elon preserves the opportunity for a hostile…