Elon Musk’s text messages reveal how his relationship with Twitter was damaged

(CNN) — days before publicly announce his investment in Twitter, Elon Musk chatted via text message with Jack Dorsey. And the former Twitter CEO suggested he no longer believed in the company he founded, new court documents from the legal battle between the billionaire and the company reveal.

Musk had quietly started racking up a large share of Twitter in January. In a March 26 text message, Dorsey told Musk: “A new platform is needed. It can’t be a company. That’s why I left.”

The billionaire, an avid Twitter user who often seemed friendly to Dorsey, responded by asking what the platform should look like. Dorsey then explained his view that it should be “an open source protocol” and not rely on “an advertising model” like Twitter currently does. Dorsey added that the social network “should never have been a company” and noted that “that was the original sin.”

Musk expressed interest in working on the idea. In a text message later that day, he said, “I think it’s worth both trying to steer Twitter in a better direction and doing something new that’s decentralized.”

The private conversations between Dorsey and Musk are among the many text messages disclosed in court documents this week, offering new insight into the Tesla CEO’s deal for buy Twitter for $44 billion and your subsequent attempt to cancel the acquisition. The messages also provide a unique window into dealmaking in Silicon Valley, as a rotating cast of billionaires and industry executives appear in Musk’s text messages — from Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff to family members. Murdoch––to discuss Twitter and, in some cases, casually offer financial support for the deal.

In the days following his conversation with Dorsey, Musk met with Twitter’s board of directors and management. On April 5, the billionaire agreed to join the company’s board of directors, a move Dorsey defended in public and in private. In an exchange of messages with Musk that same day, Dorsey expressed his confidence in Parag Agrawal, his successor as CEO of Twitter. Agrawal also expressed his enthusiasm in private messages about Musk joining the council.

But the relationship between Musk and Agrawal seemed to quickly sour.

On April 9, Musk tweeted a question: “Is Twitter dying?” And Agrawal reacted to the post that day with a text message in which he told Musk that such comments would make life miserable for the CEO.

“You are free to tweet ‘is Twitter dying?’ or anything else on Twitter,” Agrawal said in the message to Musk. “But it’s my responsibility to tell you that it doesn’t help me improve Twitter in the current context. Next time we talk, I’d like you to give me your perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how it’s hurting our ability to communicate.” work… I would like the company to get to a place where we were more resilient and not distracted, but right now we’re not there,” he added.

Musk responded tersely: “What did you accomplish this week?” In two subsequent messages, he rescinded his agreement to join the council, saying, “I am not joining the council. This is a waste of time.” And he added: “I will make an offer to make Twitter a private company.”

In a separate exchange on the same day with Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor, Musk said, “Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag won’t work.” And he added in a later message: “Drastic measures are needed.”

Musk and Twitter announced an acquisition agreement on April 25. Just over two months later, the billionaire said he wanted out of the deal, citing concerns about the number of bot and spam accounts on the platform. Twitter then sued Musk to force him to go through with the deal.

The two sides will go to trial over the settlement next month.