Other than bad press and publicity, Elon Musk has only one reason to step down as Twitter CEO, and it has to do with Tesla.
If I had a dollar for every time Elon Musk changed his mind on his leadership of Twitter, I’d be as rich as he is. The billionaire has been driving the market insane for the entire year, ever since he announced he’d be making a bid to buy Twitter.
After the platform threatened to sue him, he moved forward and purchased it for $44 billion, taking most of these funds from his Tesla portfolio. Ever since then, Twitter has been a dumpfire, at some point being on the verge of total collapse.
Most prominently, Musk changed the verification check mark making it a subscription based system. But he also endorsed the publication of the so-called “Twitter files”, which prove Twitter’s activity in a scandal involving US president Joe Biden.
Surrounded by negative press and replies on his posts, Musk made a poll on Sunday asking whether or not he should step down as CEO. The results were 57.5% in favor and 42.5% against.
Initially, Musk did not comment on the results, hinting that he would change polls so that only verified accounts could vote.
On Wednesday, however, he broke the silence and announced he would, in fact, resign as CEO as soon as he finds a suitable replacement.
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
Why Musk wants to step down from Twitter
As most of the press is currently saying, it is unlikely that Musk will step down as Twitter CEO any time soon. He will also probably remain the private owner of the platform and will keep running software and server teams.
So, even if he does step down, he might appoint a “puppet” as CEO and keep running the platform behind the curtains.
However, Elon Musk might have to deal with more pressing issues than Twitter. His net worth has seriously plummeted in recent weeks, at some point even being valued at $7 billion.
He is not the richest man in the world anymore, as that title now belongs to luxury mogul Bernard Arnault.
The reason for this sudden decrease in his fortune is Tesla, the electric car manufacturer that Musk runs as CEO. Investors are worried that Musk might be too occupied with Twitter to think about his other holdings, including and most importantly Tesla.
Indeed, we have not heard much market news from Tesla in recent months. No new models coming up nor new developments on the Cybertruck. And for a company that bases its business model on few and targeted releases, it’s failing to deliver.
So, in the end Elon Musk might be forced to step down from Twitter to save Tesla. Perhaps, however, it might be too late to steer the ship back on track.
