Elon Musk says he will step down as CEO of Twitter “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.”
The billionaire entrepreneur, who acquired the social media company at the end of October in a deal worth $44 billion, made the statement in a tweet on Tuesday night, adding that once a new CEO is in place, he will “just run the software and servers teams.”
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
The decision to step down as CEO follows a Twitter poll conducted by Musk last week in which he asked: “Should I step down as the head of Twitter?” He added at the same time that he would abide by the results of the poll.
More than 17 million people voted in the poll, with 57.5% saying he should step down, and 42.5% saying he should stay in place.
Musk stayed quiet on the matter until Tuesday, when he confirmed for the first time since the poll closed that he would indeed honor the result and bring in someone else to run Twitter.
Of course, at the current time, no one has any idea how long it’s going to take to find someone willing to take on the task of settling things down at Twitter. Plus, it will be interesting to see if, as many people already believe may happen, Musk continues to call the shots from behind the scenes.
Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter less than two months ago, there’s been much turmoil and controversy swirling around the platform, including mass staff layoffs, the reinstatement of thousands of previously banned accounts, confusion over the premium Twitter Blue tier, and the recent banning — then reinstatement — of a number of accounts belonging to journalists who have been critical of Musk.
