There is a stir in the world of tech bros, as Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey were known to be friends and to respect each other.
They had something more in common: they are both serial and prolific entrepreneurs. Musk co-founded Tesla (TSLA) and founded SpaceX, an aerospace company, among others. Dorsey co-founded Twitter and online payments service Square, renamed Block (SQ).
Dorsey has never hidden that, for him, Musk was the most influential personality on the social network, long before he became its owner. He wanted Musk as a Twitter board member, but the board denied his request.
He has often praised Musk whenever the opportunity arose. Such was the case in April 2022, when Musk made his offer to acquire Twitter for $44 billion. Dorsey did not hesitate to declare that his billionaire friend was the only one capable of revamping the microblogging website, considered the town square of our time.
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"In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter," Dorsey, who now runs Block, wrote on April 25, 2022. "It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness."
He went further by saying that "Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one."
Dorsey was one of the few CEOs to back Musk, amid strained relations with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"Ok, then WHO is the most exciting influential on Twitter right now? BE SPECIFIC," journalist Kara Swisher asked Dorsey in February 2019.
"To me personally? I like how @elonmusk uses Twitter," Dorsey answered. "He’s focused on solving existential problems and sharing his thinking openly. I respect that a lot, and all the ups and downs that come with it #karajack."
When Musk took over Twitter last October and cut half of Twitter's workforce, or 3,750 jobs, in one day, Dorsey indirectly supported him by taking responsibility for the drastic measure.
"I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that," Dorsey posted on Twitter.
In addition, Dorsey remains a shareholder of Twitter after he rolled over about 18 million of his shares, or a 2.4% stake valued at $1 billion, according to an SEC filing, in the new company created by Musk, following the acquisition of the platform. This firm is X Holdings.
... To Tensions
But since last December, there seems to have been tension between the two billionaires and friends. In February, for example, Dorsey did not hesitate to criticize Twitter 2.0 following an outage.
"Twitter went from real time to 1 minute delay," the billionaire blasted out on the decentralized platform Nostr on Feb. 8, after it was reported that during the outage, Twitter users were able to schedule tweets a minute in advance. "What's happening a minute from now."
In December, the two billionaires clashed after Musk claimed that Twitter 1.0 didn't care about the safety of children on the platform.
"It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!" Musk said on Dec. 9.
"This is false," Dorsey immediately pushed back. "I don’t know what happened in past year," Dorsey said. "But to say we didn’t take action for years isn’t true. You can make all my emails public to verify. Company took away my access to email or I would."
The breakup between the two billionaires now seems consummated, because Dorsey has just criticized Musk's leadership at Twitter. This scathing criticism came in the context of questions asked by users of Bluesky, one of the new social networks perceived as alternatives to Twitter.
Dorsey was asked if he thought Musk was the right leader for Twitter. His answer was straightforward: "No."
"No. Nor do I think he acted right after realizing his timing was bad. Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale. It all went south,” Dorsey responded on Bluesky, which he started backing in 2019, while he was still Twitter's CEO.
'Walked Away'
He went so far as to say that Musk should have dropped the Twitter deal, paid the $1 billion breakup fee, and explained to the judge that the transaction no longer had any reason to exist, since the social network had lost its value.
"I think he should have walked away and paid the $1b," the entrepreneur said.
Musk did try to abandon the transaction. A legal battle with the management of Twitter 1.0 followed, lasting several months. In the end, he gave in.
"I wish the board would not have forced the sale. Maybe there was a chance, but now we’ll never know," Dorsey said, adding that "every company is for sale to the highest bidder.”
"Was I optimistic? Yes,” Dorsey said. "Did I have the final say? No.”
Musk has not responded to his former pal's criticism.
