Elon Musk could soon leave the leadership of Twitter, a company of which he became CEO after completing its acquisition at the end of October for a value of 44 billion dollars.
The billionaire entrusted the decision to a pollexpressly asking users of the social platform whether they should resign from office and specifying that they will abide by the outcome of the referendum. Il 58% of the 17.5 million voters he asked for a step back from Muskafter just 53 days at the helm of the company.
Tesla under observation a Wall Street
Musk’s potential turnaround from Twitter leadership sparked an initial one positive reaction of Tesla shares, of which Musk is chief executive officer. The stock initially rallied more than 4% in pre-market but is currently trading down 1% on Wall Street.
Tesla has lost about 58% since the beginning of April, when Musk announced that he had acquired a stake in Twitter. Since then, the electric car maker’s shares have clearly underperformed the S&P 500 index, which is down much smaller by around 15% over the same period.
In the last months Musk has come under fierce criticism from Tesla shareholdersaccording to which the billionaire, also known for his aerospace company SpaceX, is neglecting the interests of the car company, overshadowed by the events of the social network.
In the crosshairs of the detractors have ended up above all the sales of Tesla shares to fund Twitter. Two weeks ago Musk sold 22 million shares of the electric vehicle giant for a total value of $3.6 billion. The Total value of Tesla shares sold since November 2021 exceeds $39 billion.
The recent controversy surrounding Musk’s moves, from layoffs to account suspensions
Musk’s poll on his resignation comes at the culmination of a series of controversial initiatives, which have prompted several advertisers to abandon the platform, further aggravating his already delicate financial situation.
On November 4, Twitter announced the laying off half of its 7,500 employeesincluding top executives at the company, which Musk said was losing $4 million a day.
Afterwards, the controversies concerned the subscription service Twitter Blue and the restore some accounts previously blocked, including that of the former US president Donald Trump.
In the last few days, however, they have been the accounts of several journalists were suspended, guilty of having publicly shared some personal information of the CEO (so-called ‘doxxing’). The reference is in particular to the @ElonJet case, an account (now suspended) that tweeted the location of Musk’s personal private jet using data in the public domain.
The move sparked criticism from several fronts, including the EU, which announced sanctions citing the EU’s Digital Services Law for upholding media freedom and fundamental rights, while the United Nations called it a “dangerous previous one”.
The last controversy concerns instead the banning Twitter users from posting links to rival social mediawhich affects among others Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Post and Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social network.
The company “will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms,” it said in a statement. It was later clarified that the new policy would limit itself to suspending accounts only if their purpose is “the promotion of competitors”.
Musk seeks investors and tweets: “No one wants to be my successor”
If the outcome of the survey is clear, the future of Twitter remains more uncertain. In the past, Musk has listened to users’ opinions on various topics, from reducing his stake in Tesla to restoring former President Donald Trump’s account. However, Musk tweeted that it will be hard to find another CEO since “Nobody wants the job that can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor”.
Furthermore, he recalled that the company “has been on the fast track towards the failure”. In his first speech to employees in November, the CEO emphasized that option it cannot be ruled out if Twitter does not begin to generate more cash. The company has nearly $13 billion in debt, currently in the hands of seven Wall Street banks that have been unable to offload it to other investors.
Musk was in Qatar yesterday to watch the World Cup final match between Argentina and France and tweeted his poll after the match concluded. The billionaire is looking for new investors at $54.20 a share, the same price for which it took over the company in October, paying out $44 billion. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud is the second largest investor in Twitter after Musk, while the Qatar Investment Authority has invested $375 million in the social media platform.