ELON Musk has revealed how long he plans to man the wheel at Tesla amid rumors he’ll name himself interim CEO of Twitter when the acquisition deal closes.
Musk currently serves as the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, and adding a leadership role at Twitter to his laundry list of titles might come at another company’s expense.
1
During a keynote interview at the Financial Times Future of the Car conference, Musk told the audience, and the world, that he plans to stay at Tesla for “as long as I can be useful.”
Musk joined the Tesla team when he invested $7.5million in the company in 2004 – he later put up more of his own cash and led a successful search for more investors.
Over time, company leaders were tamped down by Musk, who eventually took over as CEO in 2008 and has remained in charge since.
Musk’s bid to buy Twitter is tightly intertwined with his ownership stake in Tesla and the breadth of his attention span.
To help finance the bid, Musk has engaged in what is called a margin loan – he’s taken on a $6.25billion dollar loan from financiers that is backed by Tesla stock.
If Tesla’s stock craters, then there will be an imbalance of the cash he’s been loaned versus what he’s staked to financiers – The New York Times noted that if Tesla’s stock drops 40% collectors will expect Musk to pay off the entire debt.
The Times also highlighted that Tesla’s business is healthy – it is the highest valued car company on the market and has a considerable market share of electric car sales – but the company’s stock and the stock market as a whole is on a downward trend.
If Musk steps into a leadership role at Twitter, it’ll mean he has less time to spend at the electric car company – while much ink has been spilled about his ability to juggle responsibilities, he’s just one man.
Most read in Tech
Musk also has a controversial, overlapping relationship with tweets about Tesla.
He was flagged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for tweeting that he would take Tesla private at $420 a share – though he didn’t act on it, it was the start of a tense relationship with regulators who dislike his tweets.
Right now, Twitter is trading at around $48 dollars a share – a few points below the $54.20 per share price point Musk offered to buy the company at.
There are a number of factors contributing to Twitter’s zigzagging – speculation about new leadership, a dodgy market and even the return of Donald Trump to the platform could be pulling the share price in every direction.
“I don’t own Twitter yet, so this is not like a thing that will definitely happen,” Musk said, referring to the reversal of the Trump ban.
If the deal does not go through, the party that abandons the agreement will have to pay the other side $1billion.
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
