Elon Musk announced Thursday that a new woman will become CEO of Twitter or X Corp in the next six weeks. Musk has been leading the social media platform since he bought it last year, though he has repeatedly stressed that his position is not permanent. The Tesla billionaire said in a tweet on Thursday that his role would be transitioning to Twitter executive President and Chief Technology Officer.
Earlier, testifying, Musk said, “I look forward to reducing my time on Twitter and finding someone else to run Twitter over time.” More than a month later, he tweeted in December: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.” The pledge comes after millions of Twitter users asked him to step down in a Twitter poll created by the billionaire himself and promised to follow through.
Earlier in February, he told a press conference that he hoped to find a CEO for San Francisco-based Twitter ‘probably by the end of this year.’ Analysts following Twitter’s business welcomed the news, without knowing who the replacement would be. Twitter’s advertising business has taken a hit under Musk’s business reign, although the billionaire told the BBC last month the company is now “roughly breaking even”.
“A new CEO is the only way out for Twitter,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg. “The biggest problem with Twitter’s advertising business was Elon Musk. As he backs down, Twitter can begin to remove Musk’s personal brand from the company’s corporate image and attempt to regain trust among advertisers. The success of those efforts will depend on who takes over, but it’s hard to imagine the new CEO could be more controversial or damaging to Twitter’s advertising business than Musk.
Tesla shares rose nearly 2% on Thursday after Musk made the announcement. Shareholders of the electric car company are concerned about how much of their attention Twitter is consuming.
Last November, he was questioned in court about how he splits his time between Tesla and his other companies, including SpaceX and Twitter. Musk was scheduled to testify in a lawsuit in Delaware’s Chancery Court over a shareholder challenge to a potentially $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electric car company.
Musk stated that he never intended to become CEO of Tesla, and that he did not want to be CEO of another company, preferring to see himself as an engineer. Musk also said at the time that he expected Twitter’s organizational restructuring to be completed in the next week. It’s been almost six months since he said this.
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