Musk To Step Down As Twitter CEO Once Successor Found

Elon Musk said on Tuesday he would resign as chief executive of Twitter once he finds a replacement, in apparent response to a poll he launched that suggested users wanted him to step down.

Musk has fully owned Twitter since October 27 and has repeatedly courted controversy as CEO, sacking half of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, suspending journalists and trying to charge for previously free services.

"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" Musk tweeted, saying he will then only run software and server teams at Twitter.

In the poll results which were posted on Monday, 57 percent of voters, or 10 million votes, favoured Musk stepping down just weeks after he took ownership of the company for US$44 billion.

Musk has used the Twitter polls to take other decisions on the platform, including the reinstatement of the account of former US president Donald Trump and other suspended users.

Earlier this week he used a laughing emoji to ridicule a report he was in search of someone to take over as boss of Twitter, and tweeted that "no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive".

Analysts have pointed out that the stock price of his electric car company Tesla has slumped by one-third since Musk's Twitter takeover, and some suggest Tesla's board was putting pressure on him to quit his Twitter role.

"Finally a good step in the right direction to end this painful nightmare situation for Tesla investors," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives on Tuesday.

In discussions with users after posting his latest poll, Musk had renewed his warnings that the platform could be heading for bankruptcy.

The unpredictable entrepreneur posted his poll on his resignation shortly after trying to extricate himself from yet another controversy.

On Sunday, Twitter users were told they would no longer be able to promote content from other social media sites.

But Musk seemed to reverse course a few hours later, writing that the policy would be limited to suspending accounts only when that account's "primary purpose is promotion of competitors".

The attempted ban prompted howls of disapproval and even bemused Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who had backed Musk's takeover.

Analyst Ives noted that "advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink potentially on track to lose roughly US$4 billion per year". (AFP)