One poll and many things could be on the line: “On Sunday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk conducted a poll asking Twitter users if they want him to continue running the social media platform. Majority of responders (57.5%) voted for him to step down.” Since Elon Musk began the voyage and ended up bailing out Twitter shareholders with $44 billion, his popular company, Tesla, has lost close to $700 billion on the market cap.
Elon Musk should step down as CEO of the social media platform, according to 57.5% of the 17 million voters who responded to his poll. Musk warned users to “be careful what you wish,” but he has not stepped aside despite pledging to abide by the results. Meanwhile, Twitter users will no longer be able to link to rival social media websites — namely Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and several others — after the company said it didn’t want to allow “free promotion” of specific sites. Twitter will allow “paid advertisement/promotion” from the banned platforms, as well as some cross-posting. (LinkedIn News)
In other words, financially, this excursion has not worked well. But do not be deceived; yes, for Musk, he is having a moment and playing with the toys. The other toy SpaceX added $50 billion in valuation within two months in a private placement.
Consumer business requires an uncommon skill and the owners of Google are great examples on how to do just that in America: you build them and “hide”. Once that happens, no one will come after you because any attack goes to the workers and not the founders.
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How many Americans know the founders of Google? They ran that business for years but they made sure there were no vectors which could be attached easily with political activism and legions of secondary trolls. Unlike Meta (yes, Facebook) where Mark Zuckerberg was a noun and a verb for many, Google was an invisible target. (Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce are largely enterprise businesses. Amazon’s business was business for users and Apple’s history disconnected the founder-lineage tree.)
Musk brought the mindset of enterprise business into a consumer business; that does not work. In the enterprise, you could muscle the few Tesla partners and customers. But for Twitter, you have a tribe. In the Igbo Nation, you have no chance to finish that food when the village cooks it for you, but be assured that whatever you bring as food, the village will do justice to it. That is why Musk is overwhelmed because the village of Twitter is cooking for him.
Musk’s problem is not the money he may be losing in Twitter. The real issue is that he is destroying Tesla’s brand. You want to buy a car made by that guy? That is why he may step down, not to save Twitter, but to pump more $electrons in Tesla.
Musk usually conducts a poll seeking users’ opinion before he makes some decisions on Twitter. He said Monday that “going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes.” This suggests that the billionaire will likely heed the outcome of the poll.
With majority of responders voted for Musk to step down as the head of Twitter, both analysts and investors believe that Tesla shares will climb back to their former position in the market.
“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,” Ives added.
Comment on Feed
Comment 1: The best Elon can do now for Tesla is step down from Twitter executive role and assume the role of Chairman. Bezos is doing same with Washington Post. He signs the cheques calls the shot from behind- as the grand puppet master- but is in no way visible and close to the brand.
Comment 2: I agree with you, he is too visible on Twitter as the landlord. His attempt to run Twitter like a one man business (which it is actually) will not favour him in the long-run.
Users Voted for Musk to Step Down As Twitter Head, and It’s Good news for Tesla
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Musk would do great at Twitter if there’s no Tesla, but as long as Tesla is there, it will continue to take the beating for what is obviously not its fault. This is because today’s economics is highly ideological and political, so once there’s misalignment in politics, your business becomes the next target.
For Musk to conduct the poll, the possibility of appointing a CEO for Twitter is pretty much concluded; the poll was merely to give it a ‘democratic’ feel. Elon brings plenty innovations to Twitter, just in a space of two months, he has demonstrated that he remains an outlier, as far as innovation is concerned.
Who can run Twitter better than Musk? I don’t think there’s anyone, but again there are higher calls elsewhere, which must be answered. So, as it stands, the best he can do is to step down and then run things behind the scene.
This ultra speculative economy is capable of destroying empires in a blink, because it’s built on nothing tangible, but emotions and manipulations. When we all get tired, we will go back to building real economies. For now the joke is on all of us.
So, what if his major plan was exactly what you outlined-To get Tesla shares to surge and potentially Twitter shares to get back to its former glory days. Who would all these benefit-Musk. So…