Elon Musk said He said on Thursday that he has named a chief executive for Twitter and will remain involved as the company’s executive chairman as he continues to remake the social media service.
Mr. Musk did not name a new chief executive. He tweeted, “He starts in ~6 weeks!” He said he will still oversee Twitter’s product and software as “CTO” — chief technology officer.
Mr. Musk did not provide other details and did not respond to an email request for comment. In the past, he has made promises about what he will do at Twitter and his other companies, which he has not followed through on.
Mr. who bought Twitter last year for $44 billion. Musk will retain a firm grip on the company whether or not he names the CEO. As Twitter’s owner, he has made his mark by laying off more than 75 percent of its 7,500 employees, installing his own leaders, and changing the service’s features and strategy. He took Twitter private, meaning he didn’t have to release corporate information to the public.
In December, after being criticized for some of his decisions at the company, Mr. Musk raised. At the time, he ran a Twitter poll asking if he should step down as the company’s chairman. He wrote that I will abide by the poll results.
More than 17 million votes were cast in the poll, with about 58 percent of respondents saying they were in favor of him stepping down as chief executive. In February, speaking at a conference in Dubai, Mr. Musk has said he aims to name a new Twitter CEO by the end of 2023.
According to two employees, Mr. Prior to Musk’s tweet, Twitter’s employees had not been notified of the new CEO.
Any new CEO will have a succession of challenges at Twitter. The company faces a declining advertising business, which has been its main source of revenue, as well as Mr. It has been paying off roughly $1.5 billion a year in debt since the sale to Musk. At an investor conference in March, Twitter said it had seen a 50 percent drop in ad revenue and was headed for bankruptcy within months of its acquisition.
Last month, in an interview BBCMost of Twitter’s advertisers have returned, Mr. Musk said.
Mr. Musk has come under pressure from investors in his other companies — notably electric car maker Tesla — to step away from the day-to-day management of Twitter, which they see as a distraction. Up 2 percent in the final minutes of trading on Thursday, Mr. Shares of Tesla rose after Musk’s tweet, which had been little changed for most of the day.
Mr. Musk has previously ceded some leadership responsibilities at his other companies. At his private rocket maker, SpaceX, he has delegated much of the company’s direction to chairman and chief operating officer Quinn Shadwell. This is Mr. It has freed Musk to focus on engineering and product decisions and move between his various companies.
