Elon Musk He said on Thursday that he had picked a CEO for Twitter and that he would remain involved as CEO of the company, as he continued to reshape the social media service.
Musk did not name the new CEO. In a tweet, he said “It’s starting in ~6 weeks!” He added that he would still oversee Twitter’s products and software as its “CTO” – chief technology officer.
Mr. Musk did not provide further details and did not respond to an emailed request for comment. In the past, he’s made promises about what he’ll do at Twitter and his other companies haven’t followed through.
Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion last year, will maintain a firm grip on the company whether or not he appoints a CEO. As Twitter’s owner, he’s put his stamp on it by eliminating more than 75 percent of its 7,500 employees, installing its own leaders and changing the service’s features and strategy. He’s also taken Twitter private, which means he doesn’t have to reveal company information to the public.
Mr. Musk raised the idea for the Twitter CEO in December after he came under fire for some of his decisions at the company. He ran a Twitter poll at the time asking if he should step down as president of the company. “I will abide by the results of the poll,” he wrote.
More than 17 million votes were cast in the poll, with about 58 percent of respondents saying they supported him stepping down as CEO. In February, while speaking at a conference in Dubai, Mr. Musk said he was aiming to appoint a new CEO for Twitter by the end of 2023.
Twitter workers weren’t notified of a new CEO before Mr. Musk’s tweet, according to two employees.
Any new CEO is set to inherit a series of challenges at Twitter. The company faces a declining advertising business, which was its main source of income, as well as debt payments of about $1.5 billion a year from the sale to Mr. Musk. At an investor conference in March, he said Twitter had seen a 50 percent drop in ad revenue and was heading for bankruptcy within months of the purchase.
Last month, in an interview with BBCMost of the Twitter advertisers are back, Mr. Musk said.
Mr. Musk has also come under pressure from investors in his other companies — notably electric carmaker Tesla — to move away from the day-to-day management of Twitter, which they saw as a distraction. Tesla shares, which were little changed most of the day, jumped after Mr. Musk’s tweet, rising about 2 percent in the final minutes of trading on Thursday.
Mr. Musk has previously abdicated some leadership responsibilities at his other companies. At SpaceX, his rocket manufacturer, he delegated much of the company’s management to Gwen Shotwell, president and chief operating officer. That freed Mr. Musk to focus on engineering and product decisions, and to navigate his various companies.
