Less than two months after purchasing the social media network for $44 bιllιon, Elon Musk appeared set to step down as Twitter’s CEO on Monday after more than 10 million users voted for him to do so.
After asking followers if they thought he should “stand down as CEO of Twitter” late on Sunday, the Tesla bιllιonaire promised to “abide by the results of this poll.”
Just before 6:20 a.m. ET, the polls closed, and 57.5% of voters wanted him to go.
More than 10 million users wanted Twitter to be run by someone other than the second-richest man in the world, according to the more than 17.5 million votes cast in the online poll.
Musk did not respond to the poll’s findings right away. However, he had already asserted that no one was prepared to take his place.
“No one wants the position that can genuinely maintain Twitter’s existence. After cautioning users to “be careful what you wish for, as you might get it,” he tweeted, “There is no successor.
“I will abide by the results of this poll,” Elon Musk promised. America Niviere David/Abaca/Sipa
He also commented menacingly, “The question is not hiring a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.
Lex Fridman, a podcaster, offered to take the position, but Musk rebuffed him, saying, “You must like suffering a lot.”
“You have to invest your life savings in Twitter, and it has been headed for bankruptcy since May,” he continued. Do you still want the job?
The poll ended with 57.5% voting for him to step down. Twitter/@elonmusk
Not everyone expressed interest in the demanding job, which Fridman volunteered to manage for free so that he could “concentrate on excellent engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world.”
Rapper Snoop Dogg also conducted a survey of his 20.8 million fans, asking, “Should I run Twitter?” The results showed that 81.7% of those who voted wanted him to become the new Twitter CEO.
Musk took over as “Chief Twit” after firing former CEO Parag Agrawal shortly after he purchased the social media company in late October when he was in Qatar to witness the World Cup final.
Elon Musk said Twitter has been in “the fast lane to bankruptcy.” Dan Mullan/Getty Images
It marked the beginning of a period of radical change at the publication, during which the new editor fired roughly half the staff and exposed underhanded activities there, including the site’s submission to federal pressure and the old management’s censorship of The Post’s reporting on Hunter Bιden’s laptop.
Up to his vote on Sunday, he had continued to engage in conflict with users on a number of fronts, including those involving the suspension of a number of journalists and a policy change that forbade posting content that contained links to or usernames for competing platforms.
Minutes before his poll, Musk apologized and tweeted, “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes.”
That promise soon led to the poll about his leadership, which for many followers appeared to come out of nowhere.
However, Musk told a Delaware court last month that he would reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the company.
Shares in Tesla were initially up more than 4% in pre-market US trading Monday as investors closely watched the results of the poll.
The electric carmaker’s shares have fallen almost 60% this year, with investors increasingly concerned about Musk being distracted and the slowing global economy.
He has also cashed out nearly $40 billion of his Tesla shares over the past year, including big chunks of stock since buying Twitter in October.