Elon Musk poll shows 57.5% want him to step down as Twitter chief

Reuters

December 19

Twitter users voted in a poll for Elon Musk to step down as chief executive of the social media platform, in a backlash against the billionaire less than two months after he took over.

About 57.5% votes were for “Yes”, while 42.5% were against the idea of Musk stepping down as the head of Twitter, according to the poll the billionaire launched on Sunday evening. Over 17.5 million people took part in the vote.

Musk said on Sunday he will abide by the results of the poll, but did not give details on when he would step down if results said he should.

Shares of Tesla Inc, the electric-car maker Musk heads, were up about 5% in premarket trading.

Musk, who lost his title as the world's richest person earlier this month, also founded tunneling enterprise Boring Company, backs medical device company Neuralink and heads rocket company SpaceX.

Tesla investors have been concerned Musk has been spreading himself too thin following the Twitter deal.

Tesla shares have already lost nearly 60% of their value this year, as, like other carmakers, it battles supply chain issues and increasing competition in the EV space.

"It appears Musk's reign as CEO of Twitter will come to an end and thus be a major positive for Tesla's stock, starting to slowly remove this albatross from the story," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note.

"Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk."

Tesla is ranked among one of the top automakers in the world, delivering roughly about a million cars every year. But recent logistical challenges, pandemic-related lockdowns in China, higher borrowing costs and a dull outlook for global economic growth have raised concerns.

Last month, Musk told a Delaware court that he would reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the social media company.

Replying to one Twitter user's comment on a possible change in CEO, Musk said on Sunday "There is no successor".

"Elon", "CEO of Twitter", "vote Yes" and "vote No" were among the trending topics on Twitter on Monday.

The poll comes after Twitter's Sunday policy update, which prohibited accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social media firms and content that contains links or usernames for rival platforms.

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