Elon Musk must step down as CEO of Twitter

Today Elon Musk launched a poll on his Twitter profile asking whether he should resign as CEO of Twitter. 

Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022

The poll ended with more than 17.5 million votes, 57.5% of which were in favor. 

The fact is that Musk had also written in the tweet that he would abide by the results of the poll, so in theory, he should now resign. 

Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter

In early November with the completion of the company’s acquisition process that began in April, Musk became the de facto sole owner of Twitter. 

Once he acquired the company, he also took the reins because he had in mind an almost total restructuring plan that required speed of execution and a very short chain of command. 

However, he never hid the fact that he did not want to remain CEO of the company for long, if only because he was already CEO of other major companies, most notably Tesla and SpaceX. 

So on the one hand it was expected that sooner or later he would resign as CEO of Twitter, but few believed that this moment would come so quickly. 

It is not even clear whether he was aware that the outcome of such a survey, just over a month and a half before the final takeover of the company, would have been negative for him, but the fact remains that he has now practically promised to leave. 

Who will be the new CEO? 

It is not known at this time, but it is certain that Elon Musk himself will appoint him. 

In fact, since he is the sole owner of the company, there is not even a board of shareholders, since the shareholders are practically not there, or have an irrelevant role. 

Perhaps it is even possible to imagine that he already had a name in mind, and that he expected a negative outcome. He may have wanted to shorten the timeline in this way, as indeed he has done so far since he took over the company. 

The future of Twitter

It is worth mentioning that in recent weeks criticism of him about how he was handling Twitter rained down heavily, so much so that it ended up hurting even Tesla to some extent. 

As of today, if Twitter’s valuation is about 44 billion, Tesla’s is 474 billion, or more than 10 times as much. 

Tesla’s stock on the stock market is at 2022 low, back to levels similar to those of August 2020. 

Since its peak in November last year, when Tesla’s stock price hit an all-time high at over $410, the current price has lost 63%. A good portion of these losses occurred simultaneously with the news of the Twitter acquisition first and the actual acquisition later. 

It has lost 35% since the beginning of November, and this may have changed Elon Musk’s mind about how to run his empire. 

It is no coincidence that after an entire week of declines, today the Tesla stock rebounds in pre-market with a clear +3.5%. 

It is possible that at this stage Musk has spent too much time on Twitter, and is being forced to leave it to someone else precisely so that he can devote himself fully to his other companies as well. 

However, it is unlikely that things at Twitter will change much even with the new CEO. 

This is because since Musk is the de facto sole owner, he can freely choose the new CEO, and he can also easily and freely remove him at any time. 

So not only is it very likely that he will choose one who will do exactly what he wants, but he will also have the power to replace him at any time should he fail to do so. 

The timing of the changeover is not even known at this time, although there can, however, be a certainty that the company line will not change. 

Musk has only begun to revolutionize Twitter. Although the changes have already been very profound and significant, especially regarding personnel, he has announced more changes, and it is unlikely that this process of revolutionizing the company will stop or slow down. 

There is the question of whether the new CEO will have any kind of freedom, and whether he will be able to impose his own vision perhaps slightly different from Musk’s. 

In the meantime, however, the social network is at an all-time high in terms of usage, and a new CEO might eventually paradoxically also help and speed up the evolution process, since Musk cannot devote himself 100% to Twitter. 

A curiosity: Edward Snowden has offered to be the new CEO of Twitter by asking to be paid in Bitcoin.