Jack Dorsey says Elon Musk should've walked away from Twitter deal

Former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey criticised tech billionaire Elon Musk's direction for the social media giant saying he should have walked away and paid a $1 billion break-up fee.

Dorsey said he was earlier optimistic about the platforms takeover by Musk but now he believes that the tech billionaire "is no longer the singular solution he trusts to run Twitter."

He expressed his remarks after the users of Bluesky — an alternative platform to Twitter — asked him about the leadership of CEO Twitter Musk.

Jack Dorsey maintained while referring to the sale of Twitter to CEO Tesla and SpaceX: "No. Nor do I think he acted right after realising his timing was bad. Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale." 

He said: "It all went south."

Last year, Dorsey supported Musk's aim for Twitter, saying Musk's goal of making the social media platform "maximally trusted and broadly inclusive" is the "right one."

Dorsey wrote: "In principle, I don't believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company."

He also added: "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."

Since Musk's acquisition of Twitter, he antagonised his users by taking the company in a completely new direction — by removing checkmarks and forcing people to play for their verified accounts. 

This resulted in lowering the worth of the company to less than half of its acquisition price — $44 billion — which Elon Musk also admitted last month.

Dorsey said: "If Elon Musk or anyone wanted to buy the company, all they had to do was name a price that the board felt was better than what the company could do independently. This is true for every public company. Was I optimistic? Yes. Did I have the final say? No. I think he should have walked away and paid the $1b."

Dorsey referred to the turbulent deal while suggesting that Musk could have pulled himself off from the acquisition deal and paid break up free of $1 billion.

Dorsey retained his shares of Twitter.

Last year Musk initiated a poll on Twitter asking users whether he should retain the post of CEO of Twitter, saying he would abide by the results. The majority showed he should leave. However, did not resign active as the site's current CEO.