by Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images.
After Elon Musk agreed to step down as CEO after conducting a Twitter poll asking if he should step down and 57.5% of the 17 million polled answered yes, the question is who will to run ailing companies and how to trick someone into doing so.
A potential candidate who told Musk in April that CEO of Twitter was his “dream job,” tech investor Jason Calacanis sent out his own Twitter poll — complete with emojis showing it was a hoax — and asked whether he, the investor and former technology David Sacks, or “others” should be named CEO. Ironically, the majority of respondents voted “Other”.
He later tweeted, perhaps jokingly, “Who would want the worst job in tech AND media?! Who’s crazy enough to run Twitter?!?!” Another user tweeted that tech investor Joe Lonsdale should get the job, he replied, “Lol no thanks.” There doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming interest in the job from people with the skills to run the company.
Tesla shares are down 18% this week and more than 60% since Musk announced his plans to buy Twitter Inc. Tesla shareholders clearly believe that he spends too much time on Twitter, as he’s almost always CEO of multiple companies, and ends badly. Musk now owns $52 billion worth of Tesla stock.
Even NASA officials have begun to question whether his recent changes to Twitter are a distraction from the life-and-death matters affecting decision-making at SpaceX.
On Dec. 20, longtime Tesla investor Ross Gerber tweeted that it was time for a restructuring, saying that “the stock price now reflects the value of not having a CEO.”
It’s clear that Musk has many challenges ahead at Twitter, but the one that needs to be addressed immediately is to lure his core base of advertisers back onto the platform. The company is clearly in the midst of a chaotic mess, with employees being laid off left and right and advertisers — the bread and butter of Twitter — abandoning ship in droves.
An alarming statistic from research firm Pathmatics was recently published in The Wall Stret Journal — roughly 70% of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers did not spend on Twitter in the week ended December 18. And even though Musk and his team have been holding meetings with major advertisers in recent weeks, they haven’t been able to persuade them to come back.
Given that almost 90% of Twitter’s $5.1 billion in revenue last year came from advertising, that should be Musk’s top priority, not figuring out whose accounts should be suspended or restored. Twitter has offered some advertisers to match their ad spend dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million if they do so by the end of the year. But even this economic stimulus was not enough to bring many back on board.
Musk’s team has met with advertisers and told them they are innovating to allow users to shop directly, add more video capabilities, and develop tools to ensure objectionable content doesn’t appear alongside their ads.
Some ad buyers have said they will wait until these tools are already in place before deciding whether to return to Twitter, especially given that we’re likely entering a recession. In a speech Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk said advertisers demand a high return on investment on their ad spend. “Your requests aren’t fuzzy or irrational or anything. You are quite reasonable.”
However, some advertisers have complained about Twitter’s politicization, particularly Musk’s tweet just before the midterm elections that independent-minded voters are voting for a Republican congress.
