Some investors complained that there was no essential change even if Elon Mask retired from Twitter's CEO

by Daniel Oberhaus

Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 and became CEO, he has made various reforms, but his evaluation is divided among Twitter users. In December 2022, a questionnaire was conducted asking whether or not Twitter's CEO should quit, and in the end, ``should quit'' won the majority, but Mr. Mask actually retired as CEO. It is also pointed out that there will be no essential change even if

Twitter's investors are divided into two camps on Musk's moves
https://www.axios.com/2022/12/19/twitter-investors-split-elon-musk

Who Cares Whether Elon Musk Is CEO of Twitter?
https://theintercept.com/2022/12/19/twitter-elon-musk-ceo/

Twitter votes for Elon Musk to step down after pressure from Tesla investors | Electrek
https://electrek.co/2022/12/19/twitter-votes-elon-musk-step-down-after-pressure-tesla-investors/

Mr. Mask has renewed the subscription service Twitter Blue and launched benefits such as purchasing blue authenticated badges and halving advertisements, as well as conducting reforms such as mass dismissal of employees to reduce costs.

Meanwhile, the accounts of influencers and racists who have been misinformed about elections and vaccines have been reinstated in large numbers, the accounts of journalists who tracked Mr. Musk's private jet and the accounts of journalists who reported related news have been frozen , and others . The policy may be controversial, such as immediately withdrawing after announcing the deletion of tweets mainly aimed at promoting SNS and freezing the account.

On these issues, Mr. Mask often votes on Twitter and absorbs user opinions. On December 19, 2022, we conducted a survey asking whether the CEO should retire, and more than 17.5 million users voted, and 57.5% answered that they should retire . . In addition, Mr. Mask said, ``There are a lot of deep state bots on Twitter, and this voting result was manipulated by bots.'' ``Voting rights should be given only to paid members of Twitter.'' It is unclear whether he will actually resign from Twitter.

Elon Mask's Twitter CEO retirement vote reached a majority in favor of retirement, but Elon Mask agrees with the opinion that ``voting is by bot'' and ``voting rights should be limited to Twitter paying members''-GIGAZINE

Tech media Electrek said, ``More than 17 million people voted, with a somewhat strong majority (57%) in favor of Mr. Musk's resignation. Considering he has a list and the tweet was seen by his own followers, the results are impressive.'

Electrek reports that Mr. Mask is focusing too much on Twitter, and there are complaints from shareholders of Tesla, an electric car maker where Mr. Mask is CEO. Shareholders are dissatisfied with Mr. Mask's frequent sale of Tesla shares and the fact that political management on Twitter gives Tesla a bad impression.

In November 2022, Mr. Mask is reported to have decided on a successor candidate for Tesla CEO.

Mr. Musk identifies Tesla CEO successor candidate Directors reveal | Reuters
https://jp.reuters.com/article/tesla-musk-successor-idJPKBN2S62C8

According to overseas media Axios, Mr. Mask had previously told investors who had funded the acquisition of Twitter that he would transition to the next CEO in three to six months after becoming CEO. Even among investors, Mr. Musk's evaluation is divided, and while some say he has achieved his goal of ``reducing costs and increasing engagement'', Mr. Musk attacks advertisers, who are the main source of revenue. Some people say they were surprised.

In addition, it was reported that the number of accesses to Twitter Ads Manager decreased by 85% compared to the same month of the previous year in November 2022, highlighting that many advertisers are away from Twitter.

The number of accesses to Twitter's advertiser tools decreased by 85% year-on-year - GIGAZINE

Also, overseas media The Intercept points out that even if Mr. Mask resigns as CEO, he still owns a majority of Twitter's shares. In a capitalist society, it is the shareholders who own the company, and the board of directors elected by the shareholders hires the CEO. Dissatisfied shareholders can replace members.

In other words, since Musk owns a majority of Twitter's stock, he could easily hand over the CEO seat to someone else if he didn't like it. The Intercept points out that even if the new CEO goes to advertisers and tries to reassure them that the CEO has already changed from Mr. Musk, the CEO could be fired in the middle of the meeting. did.