The world’s most unpredictable billionaire and C-suite memelord Elon Musk has vowed to resign from the position of Twitter CEO “as soon as [he finds] someone foolish enough to take the job,” honouring his promise to abide by the results of a poll he himself posted.
For those who somehow missed it, said poll went live earlier this week with the caption: “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.” Fast forward to present day and 17.5 million votes, the results are in — 57.5% in favour of “Yes” and 42.5% leaning towards “No.”
After a successor has been formally named – which may take a while given “no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive” – Musk will apparently “just run the software and servers teams” in addition to being the social media platform’s owner.
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The announcement makes headlines after what can only be described as a tumultuous tenure post-Musk’s $44 billion wholesale acquisition, with everything from mass firings (5,000 of the company’s 7,500 employees), the whole verification debacle, to widespread criticism.
It’s to the point where the Tesla stock price has steadily been plummeting in the background and – as Nils Pratley of The Guardian has so succinctly explained – Musk now needs to realise Twitter is a hobby while the electric automaker should be his priority.
“Musk can surely see – as many shareholders of Tesla have been saying in recent weeks – that there are risks in tying his personal brand so closely to Twitter’s,” writes Pratley.
“The job of designing, producing, and selling electric vehicles is not made easier if the public face of the car company is also at the centre of storms over who Twitter is banning or unbanning this week.”
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Gary Black, Managing Partner of Future Fund, whose biggest investment is Tesla added: “Customers don’t want their cars to be controversial. They want to be proud as hell to drive them – not embarrassed.”
“Another consideration is the amount of Musk’s energy that Twitter is consuming. Having paid $44 billion for the business (probably at least twice what it was worth), Musk was always going to play with his new toy for a while but any time-and-motion analysis would suggest that the sooner he gets back to the day job the better.”
“Tesla, even after the 62% plunge in its share price this year, is valued at $475 billion (£391 billion) and the long-term value of Musk’s 13% stake is what matters most for his long-term wealth.”
Never mess with the money.
