Internet
New Twitter boss – Musk announces imminent resignation
Elon Musk appears to be stepping down as Twitter CEO soon. photo
© Angela Piazza/Corpus Christi Caller Times via AP/dpa
At the end of 2022, Elon Musk declared that he wanted to vacate the top post on Twitter – but only once the successor had been settled. A new boss has now been found. But who it is remains unclear.
Elon Musk has announced his resignation as CEO of Twitter. A successor has been found and will take over in about six weeks, Musk said in a tweet on Thursday. Musk did not initially name a name. As CTO, he wants to take care of more specific business areas such as products and software in the future.
Musk had already announced at the end of 2022 that he wanted to give up the top office – but only once the successor had been arranged. He had taken over the top post as part of his approximately $ 44 billion purchase of the Internet platform in October. Musk had always signaled that this was not a permanent solution. He also heads the electric car maker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX.
Musk’s six months as “Head of Twitter” have been characterized by chaos and controversy. After a series of highly controversial decisions, headwinds mounted. His resignation announcement in December followed a self-initiated Twitter poll in which around 57.5 percent of the participants supported his resignation. Musk had previously assured that he would stick to the result of the vote.
Musk’s Twitter purchase raised suspicions from the start. The multi-billionaire justified the takeover as an action to strengthen freedom of speech. However, critics feared a further brutalization of the Internet platform. They worried that the change in ownership would lead to rampant hate speech, disinformation and hate speech.
So far, Musk has not been able to dispel these concerns. On the contrary: With a wave of layoffs, erratic rule changes and other controversial decisions, he shook the online network and frightened advertisers – the most important source of income.
The $ 44 billion purchase, which Musk wanted to call off in the meantime and ultimately only went through under great legal pressure, has so far also been a major financial failure. In the recent issue of shares to employees, the company value was only half as high, as Musk confirmed in a BBC interview. At the same time, he claimed in an email to the workforce that Twitter could one day be worth $250 billion.
The suggestions that the service could become the basis for a super app along the lines of WeChat in China have so far not gone beyond mere speculation. Around 1,500 employees remained from around 8,000 employees. Musk changed Twitter a lot. A major upheaval, with uncertain consequences for the platform’s credibility, was the repurposing of the blue icons that once denoted an account properly verified by Twitter.