Elon Musk found Parag Agrawal to be 'nice' but not the 'fire breathing dragon' Twitter needed

Messages between Elon Musk and Parag Agrawal released in September 2022 as part of a lawsuit showed that at least outwardly, the pair seemed cordial after that meeting.

Before Elon Musk took over Twitter, now X, he had dinner with the then CEO Parag Agrawal and thought that Agrawal was missing at least one key quality in a leader.

After the meeting, Musk said he found Agrawal to be a "really nice guy." But, in the Twitter owner's opinion, being a CEO doesn't require being liked, Walter Isaacson, a writer who spent three years trailing the Tesla CEO, wrote in his forthcoming biography, Elon Musk. The book is set to be published on September 12. The Wall Street Journal ran an excerpt from it on August 31.

"What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon," Isaacson quoted Musk as saying. "And Parag is not that."

The meeting between Elon Musk and Parag Agrawal alongside Twitter's board chair at the time, Bret Taylor predates the tech billionaire's $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, the author added.

Just before the dinner, it was reported that Musk was buying up Twitter's stocks to become its biggest shareholder by the spring of 2022.

But, another version of the pair's dinner exits.

Messages between Musk and Agrawal released in September 2022 as part of a lawsuit showed that at least outwardly, the pair seemed cordial after that meeting.

"Hey Elon - great to be connected directly. Would love to chat," Parag Agrawal wrote in a message to Musk on March 27, 2022.

"Great dinner :)," Musk responded.

"Memorable for multiple reasons," Agrawal texted. "Really enjoyed it."

The relationship between the two, however, soured soon with Musk declaring that he wasn't confident about Twitter's management -- including Agrawal. He then offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share in cash.

When Musk finally did take over the platform, one of the first things he did was to fire Agrawal.

Read more: How Elon Musk spent the night after making an offer to buy Twitter