Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tells employees company not 'held hostage' by Elon Musk offer

NEW YORK: Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal has sought to reassure employees during an all-hands meeting on Thursday that the company was not being "held hostage" by news of Elon Musk`s offer to buy the company, a source familiar with the matter was quoted as saying by Reuters.

As Agrawal took questions from staff that were posted on the company`s Slack messaging service, he encouraged employees to remain focused and told them "We, as employees, control what happens," said the source, who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The meeting came after news broke that the Tesla chief executive officer had offered to buy the social media company for $43 billion. Agrawal told staff that the board was continuing to review Musk`s offer, but that he was limited in what he could share with the employees.

In one section of the question-and-answer session, one employee asked how the company arrived at the decision to offer Musk a board seat. "Are we just going to start inviting any and all billionaires to the board?" according to a section of the meeting cited by Reuters.

Agrawal responded that the board was acting in the best interest of shareholders. "I have a strong point of view that people who are critical of our service, their voice is something that we must emphasize so that we can learn and get better," he said.