Musk Looking for New Leader to Run Twitter

By Staff, Agencies

Twitter owner Elon Musk has announced that he plans to step back from the social media company over time and is looking for a new boss to run the platform, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The world’s richest man reportedly made the comments during a trial over his compensation at Tesla. During the five-day hearing that got underway in Delaware on Monday, Musk is defending against claims that his $56 billion pay package at the electric carmaker was based on easy-to-achieve performance targets and was approved by a compliant board of directors.

“There’s an initial burst of activity needed post-acquisition to reorganize the company,” Musk said in his testimony. “But then I expect to reduce my time at Twitter.”

The eccentric businessman, whose tenure as head of Twitter has been chaotic so far, later tweeted that he will run the social media corporation until it is in a strong place, adding that this would “take some time.” 

The tweet followed a statement by former chief Jack Dorsey that he wouldn’t accept the position. When asked by a Twitter user if he would take the role of CEO, he tweeted “nope.”

Since acquiring the social media platform in October, Musk has sacked nearly half of the company’s workers, then tried to rehire some back. In his latest email, the billionaire told the remaining staff that they should commit to an “extremely hardcore” schedule or accept a severance package of three months’ pay.

Musk also floated the possibility of someone succeeding him as Tesla CEO, a board member reportedly said while testifying at the trial on Wednesday.