Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted late Tuesday his intention to resign as the CEO of Twitter once he finds a successor. Nonetheless, Musk, who also heads electric vehicle maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), would continue to handle some key divisions of Twitter.
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“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” tweeted Musk. The announcement came about 38 hours (as per the Wall Street Journal) after a poll initiated by Musk on the social media platform on whether he should step down as Twitter’s CEO was closed. Musk assured that he would abide by the poll’s results. Nearly 58% of the more than 17 million Twitter users who responded to the poll voted for him to step down as the head of Twitter.
Musk Doubts Poll Results
However, Musk suggested that automated bot accounts might have impacted the poll’s outcome on the platform. Market research firm HarrisX tweeted that a majority of Twitter users wanted Musk to remain as the CEO of Twitter, based on its separate poll. HarrisX’s poll revealed that 61% of Twitter users and 53% of Americans preferred Musk to continue as Twitter’s head.
“Interesting. Suggest that maybe we might still have an itsy bitsy bot problem on Twitter …,” Musk wrote on Twitter in reaction to HarrisX’s poll results. Separately, in an interaction with a Twitter user, Musk agreed that only Twitter’s blue subscribers should be allowed to vote in policy-related polls.
Musk’s Twitter acquisition is being viewed as a major distraction by Tesla’s investors and analysts, including some Tesla bulls. Last month, Musk himself suggested that he had too much on his plate. This week Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch downgraded Tesla to a Hold from Buy, stating, “We believe increasing negative sentiment on Twitter could linger long term, limiting its financial performance and become an ongoing overhang on TSLA.”
Is Tesla Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Wall Street is cautiously optimistic about Tesla stock, with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 19 Buys, 10 Holds, and two Sells. The average TSLA stock price target of $279.41 suggests nearly 103% upside potential from current levels. Tesla stock has plunged 61% year-to-date.
