Musk and Other Tech Billionaires Are Out of Control
The Tesla founder will join Zuckerberg, Brin and Page in exercising unparalleled sway over the world’s biggest communications platforms. That is a troubling prospect.
Power trip.
Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is a hair's breadth away from purchasing one of the world’s most influential publishing platforms. That statement alone is remarkable. What’s actually disturbing about his deal to buy Twitter Inc. is the next part: He will be accountable to no one but himself.
Musk can dissolve Twitter’s board when he takes the company private. If he doesn’t, any board that remains probably won’t have teeth. That’s nothing new in tech, where checks and balances are often passé. Even so, that trend is having increasingly damaging repercussions.