Tesla Inc. chief Elon Musk said in a court filing on Monday that he will take over as CEO of Twitter, the social media company he recently bought for $44 billion. Wall Street analysts say the move could weaken the billionaire.
Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, brain chip startup Neuralink and tunnelling company Boring Company, fired former Twitter chief Parag Agrawal and other top company officials last week. Since Musk took over Twitter in April, Tesla's shares have lost a third of their value, compared with 12 percent for the benchmark S&P 500 over the same period.
Musk previously changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" in connection with the proposed move. Twitter on Monday declined to comment on how long Musk will remain CEO or whether he might appoint someone else. In a separate filing on Monday, Musk announced that he became the sole director of Twitter as a result of the acquisition.
Shortly thereafter, Musk tweeted that the move to dissolve the board was "only temporary," without giving details. Last week, Musk's $44 billion acquisition of his social media company thus ended a story that spanned several months. Since the acquisition, Musk has quickly stepped onto Twitter, which he had mocked for months for its slow product changes and removal of spam accounts.
According to two of his sources familiar with the matter, Reuters said that his team had started meetings with some employees to study Twitter's software and his code to see how different aspects of the platform work. Some employees interviewed by Reuters said they had received little contact from Mr Musk or other executives and used news reports to find out what was happening at the company.
