Elon Musk announced Thursday afternoon that he would soon be stepping down as Twitter CEO, and had chosen a new candidate.
“Excited to announce that I’ve a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks! My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software and sysops,” he wrote.
It’s not clear who Musk’s successor will be. But his announcement does not come as a surprise, and the billionaire has said for months that he does not plan to remain in the CEO role for the long term. Twitter has taken time away from Musk’s other endeavors—he is also the CEO of electric car company Tesla, and the rocket company SpaceX. Additional businesses included brain tech company Neuralink, as well as tunnel outfit The Boring Company.
Musk acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion and then took the company on a chaotic ride. He has reversed most efforts to police the site of inflammatory content, and started charging users for blue check marks that previously signified that a user’s identity had been verified. In some cases, he made changes only to change his mind later. All the while, advertisers fled the service for fear of their marketing messages being placed next to controversial posts.
He has also laid off huge numbers of staff, while many other employees have quit on their own. He said in an interview with the BBC last month that employees were down to less than 1,000, a decline of roughly 80% compared to the number he inherited last year.
Musk has acknowledged that Twitter’s finances have spiraled during his tenure. In December, the company reportedly stopped paying rent on its office space in San Francisco. It also organized a furniture auction in January, which included 631 lots of “surplus corporate office assets.” At one point in February, he said that he “had to save Twitter from bankruptcy” and “wouldn’t want to wish that pain on anyone.” He then added that the company was “trending to break even if we keep at it.”
Investors and banks that helped Musk finance his Twitter acquisition will almost certainly welcome new leadership. More stability and a clearer strategy could help bring back some of the lost advertisers.
Shares of Musk’s other company, Tesla, jumped more than 2% after his announcement about new Twitter leadership.
Musk interest in Twitter has been a sore point among Tesla investors, to the point that a group of shareholders with more than $1.5 billion in stock between them wrote a letter demanding to meet with the board to discuss Musk’s performance at the electric car company.
This is a breaking news story; please check back for updates.
