Users vote for Musk's resignation as head of Twitter: Who will replace him?

The results of the poll conducted by Elon Musk on Twitter, through which Musk decided to find out among the registered users of the social network whether he should leave the position of the head of the social network after a series of problems with Twitter, are known. A majority of those who took part in the poll voted for Musk's departure by a slim percentage margin. In addition, there are already several potential candidates for the post of Twitter director, including self-nominees.

Poll results

57.5% of those who took part in the poll voted for Musk's departure as Twitter CEO, while 42.5% voted against. All in all about 17 million people took part in the poll.

Before the poll began, Musk promised that he would follow up on the results and make a decision. "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll," he wrote. It is still unclear whether Musk will keep his promise and leave office.

Amid the news about the results of the survey Tesla stock price rose by 4-5%. Many Tesla investors believe that Musk should not focus all his attention on less important projects and should devote more time to priority business areas.

The survey was preceded by a series of scandalous events related to changes in the policy of the social network, which the new owner of Twitter announced in recent weeks. In particular, users were banned from sharing on Twitter links to the resources of some competing social networks (with the exception of YouTube, OnlyFans and a number of other networks). A few days ago, it was forbidden to publish personal data about the location of people, their addresses and contacts, after which Twitter blocked the accounts of a number of well-known American journalists, commentators, who referred to Musk in their publications and criticized him. Of course, the accounts of some of them were later unblocked.

Candidates from Musk's inner circle

Elon Musk said in November that he intended to find someone who could take his place as Twitter CEO, but recently said he did not see anyone as his successor. "The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive," he said in response to a comment that he had already found his replacement.

According to Bloomberg, amid the news of the survey, there are already possible candidates, and not only from Musk's entourage. According to the newspaper, Jason Calacanis, a teammate of the current Twitter CEO, David Sacks, former head of PayPal, and Sriram Krishnan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, may apply for this position to some extent in the current situation.

Notably, Calacanis even conducted his own Twitter poll, discussing both his candidacy and that of David Sacks. The latter received 31.1% of the vote, Calacanis himself was limited to 8.2% of the vote, and the "other candidate" received the most at 39.1%. A total of 13,879 Twitter users took part in the poll.

All three potential candidates were with Musk on the day he visited Twitter's headquarters shortly after acquiring the social network. All three were reportedly given access to important information about the company, as well as decision-making authority in both personnel management and relations with Twitter's advertisers. Calacanis and Sacks later denied any involvement in running the company.

Other candidates

Lex Fridman, who does research in artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has offered his candidacy to head Twitter. He said he would be willing to run the company on a permanent basis and without remuneration. However, Musk urged him to change his mind and reminded him of the risks of losing his savings invested in Twitter, as well as the complexity of such a job.

According to Financial Times sources, former Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg could take over Twitter. If he does not agree to such an offer, Sarah Friar, formerly Square's chief financial officer, would be an alternative candidate.

About a month ago, while discussing a possible successor to the head of Twitter, Elon Musk rejected the candidacy of John Legere, the former CEO of T-Mobile.