Musk calls running Twitter 'really stressful'; odds rise on his replacement
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After being relatively quiet regarding Twitter (TWTR) through the early part of 2023, Elon Musk was back at it with plenty to say about the future of the social media company.
And, needless to say, speculation has risen, again, about who might next take the helm as Twitter (TWTR) Chief Executive if Musk steps down by the end of the year.
In a late-Tuesday interview with the BBC, Musk painted a picture of what has been a turbulent, near-startup-like atmosphere at Twitter (TWTR) since he took over the company in a $44B buyout in October 2022. Along with slashing thousands of jobs and cutting Twitter's (TWTR) operating costs, Musk said he has spent many nights sleeping on a couch at Twitter's (TWTR) San Francisco headquarters, and that his dog, Floki, is Twitter's (TWTR) actual CEO.
With Musk speaking to the BBC, British oddsmakers jumped in with the latest betting lines on his potential replacement. The British site BettingSites.co.uk, said the odds of Musk stepping down from Twitter (TWTR) by the end of the year are one-in-three, and that Steve Davis, currently CEO of Musk's Boring Company, is the top candidate to be Twitter's (TWTR) next boss, with 2-to-1 odds.
Other potential candidates include former Twitter (TWTR) product director Sriram Krishnam, at 4-to-1, Sheryl Sandberg, Meta Platforms' (META) former chief operating officer, with 8-to-1 odds, Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, at 50-to-1 odds, and former Twitter (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey, who is currently sitting at 100-to-1 odds of re-taking the helm of the company he co-founded.
Musk told the BBC that it has "really quite a stressful situation over the last several months" at Twitter, and that he has "shot myself in the foot" several times with his tweets, which are often scrutinized for everything from his views on how Twitter (TWTR) should be run to his political leanings.
Meanwhile, as if not only running Twitter (TWTR) was enough, Musk he also has his positions as CEO of Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX to keep him busy. Such a workload has raised questions on Wall Street about how much attention Musk is giving to Tesla (TSLA), in particular, and who might take his place at the Twitter (TWTR) helm.
As much of Wall Street's attention on Wednesday was focused on Musk and Twitter (TWTR), analysts speculated that Tesla (TSLA) may continue to see an impact on its earnings margins due to more potential price cuts.