More than 17 million people had their say in a Twitter poll where the new CEO, Elon Musk, asked if he should step down as boss of the social media giant. And the overwhelming majority of them told him to go.
Almost 58 percent voted “yes” when asked if Musk should step down, meaning there was nothing unclear about the result. What’s less clear is if the former world’s richest man will stick to his word and “abide by the results of this poll” as he claimed he would when he launched it on Sunday.
But while we’re waiting for Musk to make that decision, we want you to help him make another one. We’ve started a poll of our own to ask whether Elon Musk should also step down as boss of Tesla while he’s at it.
Related: How Elon Musk Keeps The Lid On Tesla Leaks
There’s no doubt that Tesla’s incredible ascent is in large part down to the brains, drive and determination of Elon Musk. But there’s also little doubt that some investors, while acknowledging that fact, would love to see him hand the reins over to someone else. Tesla’s share price has halved over the past year and having a CEO whose mind is being distracted from the job of running Tesla by side projects like Space X, and now Twitter – whose acquisition forced Musk to sell Tesla stock that hurt investor confidence in the automaker – is far from ideal, some will argue. Tesla’s third largest shareholder, Indonesian billionaire KoGuan Leo has publicly called for Musk to step down.
Others might counter that there’s no one else who could do what Musk has done and is doing, and that even a distracted, impetuous Musk is twice as good as none at all. But Tesla board member James Murdoch recently revealed during court testimony that Tesla had identified a potential replacement for Musk, though he didn’t name the candidate.
So given that there is someone in the frame to become the new Tesla CEO, should Elon Musk step down from the automaker? We’re not expecting Musk to stand by the results of this poll, but we’d love to hear your opinion. Head over to Twitter to have your say.