Elon Musk to temporarily assume CEO role at Twitter after takeover
Tesla shares dropped in response to the reports that Elon Musk will be splitting his time as CEO with social media platform Twitter.
According to reports, Elon Musk will temporarily assume the role of CEO at Twitter after the completion of the $44-billion acquisition deal. Musk already heads Tesla Motors, , and The Boring Company.
Shortly after this news broke out, 's shares dropped by over 8 percent, with indications that shareholders are worried that Musk will be distracted by his new duties. On the other hand, Twitter's shares were up about 4 percent to $50.89, closer to Musk's promised acquisition price of $54.20.
The rise in Twitter shares can probably be attributed to the news that Musk has secured $7.1 billion in funding for his bid from the likes of Oracle co-founder and Tesla board member Larry Ellison, Sequoia, Vy Capital, crypto exchange firm Binance, and a few others.
It is uncertain how this report affects Twitter's current CEO Parag Agrawal as Musk has previously said that he doesn't have confidence in the social media giant's current management. Agrawal was appointed CEO in November 2021 after the departure of Co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Agrawal will be guaranteed $42 million if he is terminated. This number is based on a year's worth of salary, plus accelerated vesting of all Agrawal's shares in the company due to the acquisition.
Dorsey, who has been an influential supporter of Musk's bid to control Twitter, has also been vocal in his support for Agrawal.
He said that while he believes Musk is the "singular solution" he can trust to buy Twitter, Agrawal shares Musk and Dorsey's goal of making Twitter “maximally trusted and broadly inclusive.”
For his part, Agrawal has largely been silent since a couple of tweets on 28 April where he declared that he was still at the helm of the company.
He said, "I took this job to change Twitter for the better, course correct where we need to, and strengthen the service. Proud of our people who continue to do the work with focus and urgency despite the noise."
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta
