This is a powerful position.
One of those positions that throw you into the spotlight and can grind you down.
The position in question is that of the CEO of Twitter (TWTR).
The social network has become the town square of our time, the place where opinion makers and trend setters meet, where politicians, companies and influencers determine the agenda of current issues.
Since Elon Musk took control of the platform for $44 billion on October 27, the focus on the platform's has increased even further. It has become the social network covered by almost all the media in the world on a daily basis.
Companies, advertisers, influencers, politicians, rights groups and others are closely watching how the new owner will mediate public discourse on the platform.
But less than two months after the start of the Musk era, it is almost chaos. At least 5,000 of the company's 7,500 employees when he arrived have been fired or left.
The safeguards that had been put in place to limit the spread of hateful, racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic speech and misinformation have been relaxed. Today, any message is accepted on the platform as long as it does not violate the law, a laissez-faire approach in the name of free speech.
Twitter Is Losing Money
The problem is that Musk, who defines himself as the "free speech absolutist," suspended accounts of journalists who criticized him, which prompted many of his critics to ask him to clarify the rules governing free speech. The Techno king has been called a "king" by legendary investor Mark Cuban, who deplores the lack of transparency in the rules in place at Twitter.
The opaque rules and unpredictability of Musk, who has also become very political, had serious financial consequences for both Twitter and Tesla, another Musk company, which seems to be paying the price for the politicization of its CEO and his activism on Twitter.
Advertisers have fled the social network, even though Musk says the number of users has increased. Many brands like General Motors have paused their ads to see what Musk intends to do with the platform.
Last month, the billionaire said that "the company is losing over $4M/day."
As for Tesla, the company has become the collateral victim of Musk's adventures with Twitter. The carmaker's market value is currently over $474 billion, meaning that nearly $640 billion of market capitalization has evaporated in 12 months. Tesla’s stock is currently trading at $150.23, which represents a 57.4% year-on-year drop.
"I have to believe $TSLA outside directors are putting pressure on Elon to give up his role as $TWTR CEO," Tesla's investor Gar Black posted on December 18. "It’s hard to ignore the numbers since TWTR deal closed on 10/27 ( $TSLA -33% vs NDX unch’d) while 10yrTY have DROPPED from 3.92% to 3.48% on Friday."
'No One Wants the Job'
Musk seems to have heard the criticism and is orchestrating his exit as CEO of Twitter. He has just organized a poll asking users to vote yes or no on whether he should give up his job as the boss.
Nearly 18 million users voted and yes won with 57.5% of the votes cast. Musk promised to abide by the result. It is therefore in this context that he drew the profile of the future CEO of Twitter, after podcaster Lex Fridman offered him to run the company.
"Fun suggestion @elonmusk: Let me run Twitter for a bit," Fridman tweeted at Musk, after the billionaire posted the poll. "No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world. Just offering my help in the unlikely case it's useful."
Instead of the categorical refusal to John Legere, the former CEO of T-Mobile, who had made a similar proposal a few months ago, Musk did not say no to Fridman. He didn't say yes either. The billionaire was content to give him the necessary profile of the person suitable to take control of the firm.
"You must like pain a lot," Musk responded. "One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?"
"Yes. We'll turn it around," Fridman answered.
Musk didn't say whether he would give him the job. But the serial entrepreneur continued to elaborate on what he sees as the main qualification for the ideal candidate: "The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive," he told another Twitter user.
To another Twitter user he said: "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor."
"If Musk leaves as Twitter CEO and appoints someone else (social media background ideal) this would be a major positive for Tesla shares as the Twitter overhang would be significantly reduced clearly in our opinion," Wedbush's analyst Dan Ives said.
