Musk to vacate Twitter role as Tesla shares tank 8%

After multiple hits to Tesla share prices, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has confirmed he will resign from his position at the social media platform.

On Sunday, the entrepreneur hosted a Twitter poll, asking users to vote on whether he should abdicate his position or remain. Out of the 17 million participants, roughly 10 million, or 57.5%, called for his resignation. The morning after, investment firm Oppenheimer downgraded Tesla’s stock.

Despite promising to abide by the results, the CEO hesitated to respond, leading to confusion on whether he intended to follow through. While not certain, this uncertainty may have contributed to yet another hit to Tesla shares, which fell by an additional 8% the day after Oppenheimer’s announcement.

Musk finally confirmed he would be stepping down as CEO on Tuesday evening, although it remains to be seen if this will have an impact on Tesla shares. However, while his role is changing, the entrepreneur will be far from absent. First, Musk will need to find a replacement, a task which he believes could take some time, commenting, “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive.” Second, he will continue to work at Twitter in a limited capacity, managing some of the platform’s software teams. Most importantly, he will still be the company’s sole owner, meaning that, CEO or not, the extent of his influence will change little.

The entrepreneur’s very public Twitter buyout and subsequent management, has been a source of concern for investors. Overall, Tesla shares have fallen 30% since the beginning of the year. While the auto-industry as a whole has had to tighten its belt, the automaker’s year over year stock values have only ever grown, barely taking a pause in the early months of 2020. While the CEO has yet to reveal the reasons for his announcement, it is almost certain shareholder sentiment played a significant role in the events of this week.

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