Elon Musk will resign as Twitter CEO after finding a replacement
The billionaire is now looking for ‘someone foolish enough to take the job’ at the social media platform, as shares in his other company Tesla plummet.
Twitter chief executive Elon Musk has broken his silence after more than 10 million users voted for him to step down from the social media platform, confirming that he intends to quit.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!,” Mr Musk said in a tweet on Wednesday.
“After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
Over the weekend, the billionaire had asked Twitter users whether he should step down as head of Twitter, with 57.5 per cent of users saying that he should.
“The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive,” he wrote, amid claims from the ‘chief Twit’ that Twitter loses some $US4m per day.
He also followed up by writing: “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”
Mr Musk, who has run Twitter for just seven weeks, said he would abide by the results of the poll, which were decisively in favour of the executive stepping down.
About 57.5 per cent votes were for “Yes”, while 42.5 per cent were against the idea of Mr Musk stepping down, with over 17.5 million people voting.
Since taking over in October Mr Musk – the world’s second wealthiest person – has fired several thousands of Twitter employees including top executives, has reinstated several accounts including that of former US president Donald Trump, and has suspended the accounts of several high-profile technology reporters.
Mr Musk has said previously he had no intention of staying on permanently as Twitter’s CEO, telling a Delaware judge in November that he planned to reduce his time at Twitter and “find somebody else to run Twitter over time”.
Rumoured successors in the top job include David Sacks, partner at Craft Ventures, and venture capital investors Jason Calacanis and Sriram Krishan, who are all close to Mr Musk.
Shares in Mr Musk’s other company Tesla meanwhile fell 8.1 per cent on Tuesday to a two-year low, and its stock is now down by more than 60 per cent since the start of the year.
A growing number of Tesla investors, including its third-largest shareholder and self-professed Musk fanboy KoGuan Leo, are calling for Mr Musk to leave Twitter and focus instead on the electric car maker.
“Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO,” Mr Leo tweeted earlier this week.
“Tesla needs and deserves to have working full-time CEO.”
Tesla stock price now reflects the value of having no CEO. Great job tesla BOD - Time for a shake up. $tsla
— Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) December 20, 2022
Another unhappy investor, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth Management chief executive Rob Gerber, tweeted that it’s “time for a shake up” and that Tesla’s current share price reflects its lack of chief executive.
Mr Musk replied by asking Mr Gerber for his “great ideas” and told him to “go back and read your old Securities Analysis 101 textbook.”
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