Elon Musk is actively searching for a new Twitter CEO following his $44 billion acquisition of the company in October, CNBC reported Tuesday.
Musk’s quest for a new CEO was ongoing before he informally polled users Sunday about whether he should remain head of the company, according to CNBC. He replied to a Tweet of the outlet’s report with laughing emojis, and did not offer any specifics.
More than half (57.5%) of respondents voted for Musk to step down as CEO, while 42.5% said he should not resign. There were 17.5 million users who voted in the 24-hour poll.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Musk has served as CEO of Twitter since he purchased the company, a position he said would be temporary on multiple occasions.
He told potential investors before purchasing Twitter that he would remain as CEO for a few months after the deal, CNBC reported in May.
“I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time,” Musk said while testifying in court Nov. 16, according to CNBC.
Musk brought at least 50 employees over from Tesla to help him at Twitter, the outlet reported in October. Musk’s inner circle at Twitter reportedly includes angel investor Jason Calacanis, former PayPal COO David Sacks and other high-profile venture capitalists.
“The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive,” Musk said Dec. 18, in response to a tweet from prominent tech account Whole Mars Catalog.
He told podcaster Lex Fridman, “You must like pain a lot” after Fridman suggested he should become Twitter’s new CEO.
Musk reportedly fired roughly 80% of Twitter’s engineering workforce, as well as a number of top executives at the company. He has allegedly implemented an “extremely hardcore” work culture since taking over in October. (RELATED: One Year Before Hunter Biden Laptop Story, Twitter Execs And Journalists War-Gamed An Eerily Similar Scenario)
Musk has generated controversy for his decisions as CEO, including Twitter’s $8/month premium subscription plan, reinstating conservative Twitter accounts, orchestrating the release of the “Twitter Files” and suspending liberal journalists for allegedly posting his real-time flight location data.