Will he stop or not? Elon Musk says he will “adhere” to a Twitter poll calling for him to step down as the social network’s CEO while he tries to salvage the falling value of Twitter’s sister company Tesla.
However, the 51-year-old South African, who paid $44 billion for the faltering social network in October, has given no details on when he will step down or who could replace him.
Whether he will keep his promise of resignation is unclear due to his behavior in recent weeks. Even if he does, it could take weeks or months, as he believes few other than him can do it.
“The question isn’t finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive,” he tweeted. “No one wants the job that can actually keep Twitter alive.”
The embattled entrepreneur has made himself extremely unpopular on the social media platform, which he agreed to on a whim.
In the Flash poll he created on Twitter, 58 percent of the 17.5 million people who voted said he should go.
This comes amid a wave of controversy as Mr Musk struggles with how to run a social network.
After Mr Musk drew fire for allowing thousands of banned accounts back into the forum, including that of former US President Donald Trump, Mr Musk recently faced controversy over the ban and then unban of tweets and accounts with links to competing social media networks.
He was also criticized for suspending the accounts of journalists, including Kerry-born CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan, who linked to articles covering the whereabouts of his private jet.
Twitter has laid off most of its employees since Mr Musk took over in November. He has since criticized former executives for what he described as a left-wing bias.
He has also responded positively to conspiracy theories surrounding the US government’s Covid policy, tweeting that his “pronouns are prosecuted/Fauci,” a reference to conspiracy theorists’ claim that US Health Official Anthony Fauci broke the Covid rules not applied properly.
Earlier this month, the head of Twitter’s Irish office, Sinéad McSweeney, obtained a High Court injunction preventing Mr Musk from arbitrarily dismissing her.
Criticism of his leadership from Twitter has coincided with an unprecedented decline in Tesla’s stock value, which has fallen more than 30 percent since Mr Musk took the job as CEO in late October.
Tesla’s $200 billion slump
Investors are concerned that Mr. Musk, who admitted he paid too much for Twitter and that it “has been on the fast track to bankruptcy since May,” has been distracted by the social network’s drama and neglecting Tesla.
“I think the stock is just going to go down from here,” said Catherine Faddis, senior portfolio manager at Fernwood Investment Management.
“Elon Musk has damaged his reputation with this Twitter business and all the bad news.”
The car company, widely credited with opening up the electric vehicle market, is down 62 percent for the year, compared to 44 percent for Ford and 40 percent for General Motors. Apple and Google are down 26 percent and 38 percent, respectively, while Meta is also down 62 percent.
https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/elon-musk-leaves-us-aflutter-on-whether-he-will-quit-the-twitter-job-nobody-wants-42231563.html Elon Musk has us trembling over whether he’ll quit the ‘nobody wants’ Twitter job
