About 58% of 17.5 million votes cast were in favor of the billionaire stepping down from the leadership role.
Twitter Inc. users voted to let Elon Musk step down as head of the social platform in a poll the billionaire businessman said he would respect, a sharp rebuke to his chaotic tenure less than two months since he took office.
Some 58% of the 17.5 million votes cast were in favor of Musk stepping down from the leadership role.
If Musk pays attention to the results, it would mark the end of a chaotic 53 days at the helm, which involved firing top executives, cutting roughly half of his employees, and scaring off advertisers.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has devoted much of his time since acquiring Twitter on Oct. 27 to the social media service, drawing criticism for his abrupt policy changes and carelessness. of his other businesses. . Tesla shares, its most valuable holding, have plunged by about a third since the acquisition.
It is not the first time that Musk has put important corporate decisions for Twitter users. He conducted a poll among his followers on whether to reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account and allow him back the next day.
Read more: Musk’s volatility is alienating Twitter’s top content creators
There is no clear replacement at Twitter, as nearly all of the top executives have been fired or resigned in recent months. Musk added in subsequent tweets that “Nobody wants the job that can actually keep Twitter alive. No successor,” and “and has been on the fast track to bankruptcy since May.”
The threat that Twitter could run into financial trouble has been a constant throughout Musk’s tenure, who in his first speech to Twitter employees in November said bankruptcy was a possibility if he didn’t start generating more cash. The company is nearly $13 billion in debt that is now held by seven Wall Street banks that have been unable to offload it to investors.
No one wants a job that can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.
Musk had previously indicated that he would only be in charge of Twitter for a limited time to complete the organizational overhaul he believed it needed to thrive, complaining about having “too much work” and sleeping in Twitter’s San Francisco office while enforcing his mandate. radical changes.
Tesla shares gained 4.8% in US premarket trading on Monday. Shares of the automaker have plunged 57% this year amid concerns that the chaotic acquisition of Twitter has distracted Musk from the firm that made him the world’s richest person, a title he lost last week to the titan of luxury Bernard Arnault.