I came, I saw… I went out ? Less than three months after buying Twitter for 44 billion dollars (41.5 billion euros), Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX – and a great fan of Latin phrases – could announce during the day that he is giving up. the position of CEO of the social network. Elon Musk has indeed put online, Sunday, December 18, a poll on Twitter asking whether he should leave the company’s management, and pledged to monitor the results. After twenty-four hours, 57.5% of the more than 17 million voters answered him “yes”.
Beyond the fiery debates on the personality of Elon Musk and the merits of his action at Twitter, the survey reflects the tension around his personal investment in the social network, since the announcement of his takeover in April. Some of his admirers, small Tesla shareholders and financial analysts, have long hoped that he would return to managing the automaker, instead of spreading himself thin, knowing that he also owns SpaceX and Starlink.
“If Elon Musk steps down as CEO of Twitter and appoints someone (ideally a social media savvy), that would be major good news for Tesla’s stock, which would no longer be weighed down by its involvement in Twitter.”, wrote analyst Dan Ives, of Wedbush Securities. “As the CEO of a $1 trillion company, Elon Musk should focus on Tesla, not scatter and waste time buying and running a $43 billion company”, already warned, in mid-April, David Trainer, of the investment company New Constructs.
The subject is all the more sensitive as Tesla shares have lost more than half of their value since the takeover of Twitter, thus reducing Elon Musk’s fortune, now estimated at 163 billion dollars, according to Forbes. The entrepreneur thus lost, on December 13, his title of “richest man in the world” in favor of the Frenchman Bernard Arnault (LVMH).
Looking for investors
Tesla’s value is a structural problem for Elon Musk. Because Twitter is in bad financial shape, which pushes its new boss to already look for money: according to information from the specialized site Traffic lights, several investors have been approached in recent days to buy shares of Twitter at the same price paid by Elon Musk in October, a valuation of 44 billion dollars. An amount “overpaid”by the buyer’s own admission.
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