Elon Musk could step down as Twitter CEO after promising to listen to the results of a poll.
The Tesla mogul asked his followers on the microblogging website to vote on Sunday (18.12.22) as to whether he should leave his position, and pledged to "abide by the results", with the vote closing at 57.5% in favour of him leaving.
He wrote alongside the poll: "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll."
In total, 17,502,391 Twitter users voted in the poll, which ran for 12 hours.
The 51-year-old businessman insisted he didn't have a successor in mind when he posed the question.
In response to one user suggesting he already has a new CEO "picked out", Elon replied: "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor."
He also wrote to another user: "The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive."
And he also issued two warnings along with the vote.
In one, he wrote: "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it."
In a later tweet, he added: "Those who want power are the ones who least deserve it."
Research scientist Lex Fridman pitched for the job.
He wrote: "Let me run Twitter for a bit. No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world.
"Just offering my help in the unlikely case it's useful."
But Elon warned: "You must like pain a lot. One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?"
