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Elon Musk Twitter poll ends with users seeking his departure

Published:Monday | December 19, 2022 | 2:12 PM
Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition in Washington, Monday, March 9, 2020. Twitter on Thursday, December 16, 2022 suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner Elon Musk, among them reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Millions of Twitter users asked Elon Musk to step down as head of Twitter in a poll the billionaire created and promised to abide by.

When the poll closed Monday, however, it still wasn't clear if there would be a new leader for the social media platform, which has grown more chaotic and confusing under Musk's leadership with rapidly vacillating policies that are issued, then withdrawn or changed.

Among those in the “go” camp were almost certainly Tesla investors who have grown tired of the 24/7 Twitter chaos which they say has distracted the eccentric CEO from the electric car company, his main source of wealth.

Musk also used his shares in the company to partially fund the acquisition of Twitter.

Shares of Tesla are down 35 per cent since Musk took over Twitter on October 27, costing investors billions. Tesla's market value was over $1.1 trillion on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed he was buying up Twitter shares.

The company has since lost 58 per cent of its value, at a time when rival auto makers are cutting in on Tesla's dominant share of electric vehicle sales.

Shares were up three per cent before the market opened Monday, with the poll suggesting there was a growing chance of Musk's exit from Twitter.

But they hit a new two-year low of US$145.82 in the morning with no word from Musk, recovering to a 1.7 per cent gain early in the afternoon.

“This has been a black eye moment for Musk and been a major overhang on Tesla's stock, which continues to suffer in a brutal way since the Twitter soap opera began,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote Monday.

If Musk's tenure ends, it would be a major positive for Tesla stock and a sign that Musk is “finally reading the room that has been growing frustration around this Twitter nightmare.”

The billionaire Tesla CEO Musk attended the World Cup final Sunday in Qatar, where he opened the poll. After it closed 12 hours later, there was no immediate announcement from Twitter or Musk, who appeared to be flying back to the US.

More than half of the 17.5 million respondents voted “yes” in answer to Musk's Twitter poll asking whether he should step down as head of the company.

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