Twitter Reaches Deal to Keep Silver Lake’s Egon Durban on Board

The agreement reached on Thursday lets him to stay on the board in exchange for reducing the number of company’ boards that he serves on, Twitter said Friday in a securities filing.

Mr. Durban’s nomination ran into opposition from some shareholder advisory groups that argued he was stretched too thin because of his presence on multiple boards. Many investors have their votes follow proxy adviser recommendations automatically. Some big index funds that vote their own shares have also been tightening their guidelines for the maximum number of boards they believe directors should sit on.

Twitter said its board determined that Mr. Durban’s resignation isn’t in the best interests of the company, which agreed last month to be bought by Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk in a deal that Mr. Musk has since said is on hold.

Mr. Durban has been part of Twitter’s transaction committee and closely involved in talks between the company and Mr. Musk, according to a person familiar with the matter and a regulatory filing.

As part of the deal to keep him on the board, Mr. Durban agreed to serve on no more than five public company boards by May 25, 2023. Mr. Durban currently serves on the boards of six other publicly traded companies, in addition to Twitter.

The company said its board “does not believe that Mr. Durban’s other public company directorships will become an impediment if such engagements were to continue,” but said the agreement should address shareholder concerns.

Mr. Durban was initially appointed to Twitter’s board as a result of a 2020 agreement with Silver Lake that entitled the firm to a seat on the board.

Representatives for Twitter declined to comment beyond the filing. A Silver Lake spokesman declined to comment.

Write to Will Feuer at [email protected]