Photo Credit: Marten Bjork
Over the weekend, Elon Musk asked the denizens of Twitter if he should step down in a poll. The results are in, and the answer is yes. Will he step down from Twitter?
The final results of the poll were 57.5% in favor of Musk stepping aside, but there is no indication of who may step in. Edward Snowden tweeted he would accept the job if Elon Musk paid in Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg started a poll of his own to ask fans if he should ‘step up‘ as CEO of Twitter? While the chaos of what’s happening with Twitter keeps Elon occupied, Tesla shareholders are incensed. Shares of the electric vehicle manufacturer are down 35% since Musk’s Twitter takeover on October 27.
That takeover has been fraught with changes that have all but gutted Twitter as a company. More than half of Twitter’s workforce has been laid-off, among many of them content moderators. Musk also disbanded Twitter’s Council of Trust and Safety advisors designed to keep the platform in line with government policies around the globe. He also spent the weekend banning journalists and issued a now-rescinded policy to ban links to rival platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and other social networks.
But five days ago, the third-largest individual shareholders of Tesla called for Elon Musk to be replaced as CEO. “Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO,” KuGuan Leo tweeted on December 14. “Tesla is 19 years old, ranked 4th with 2.4% allocation in S&P. Elon was the proud father; Tesla has grown up. An executioner, Tim Cook-like is needed, not Elon.”
Leo owns around 22.6 million Tesla shares, worth an estimated $3.4 billion at current market value. He is the third-largest investor in the company behind Elon Musk and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Tension for his perceived abandonment of Tesla could be a reason for the poll–giving Elon the graceful out that he’s honoring the people’s wish. Only time will tell.