Tesla shares jumped on Monday as investors speculated that CEO Elon Musk might step back from Twitter. The billionaire has been leading the social media company since late October and Tesla shares have been witnessing a slump since April when Musk announced his move to take over the micro-blogging website. Tesla investors had even expressed concern regarding the company CEO’s distraction with Twitter.
Tesla shares rose as much as 5 per cent at the start of early trading, following a 58 per cent drop since Musk disclosed in April that he had taken a stake in Twitter. The S&P 500 Index, by comparison, fell 15 per cent over the same period.
The uptick in share prices was seen after Musk conducted a poll asking if he should step down from the position of CEO of Twitter. The voting has completed and Twitter users voted in favour of Musk stepping down as head of Twitter. The poll gathered over 17.5 million votes. Of these votes, 57.5 per cent of voters chose ‘Yes’ as their option and 42.5 per cent opted for ‘No’. Musk assured that he would abide by the results of the poll. But he also noted that he doesn’t have a suitable successor, without going into specifics. “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” Musk had tweeted.
This is not the first time Musk will be acting based on a Twitter poll. He had even re-introduced former US President Donald Trump on the platform. Musk hasn’t responded to the post since the official results were formulated.
The billionaire will most likely stay involved in the social media platform even if he decides to step down as CEO. Musk also holds the position of Chairman in Twitter and he will most likely retain that position.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
Fastlane to Bankruptcy
Musk openly claimed that he has no successor to head Twitter and it is on the ‘Fastlane to bankruptcy’. He also warned people interested in heading the company, “You must like pain a lot.”
He said in a tweet, “One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?”
Before completing the Twitter acquisition, Musk admitted that he will be paying an inflated price of $54.20 for Twitter shares. However, Twitter went to court when Musk tried to back down from the deal. However, the Delaware court ordered Musk to complete the acquisition within the deadline.
Since taking Twitter, Musk made some significant changes in the platform, including removing the top brass as well as implementing a more subscription-heavy business model, compared to Twitter 1.0.
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