After his promise of “overhauling” the company, Twitter head Elon Musk has finally thrown the towel in, announcing that his undisclosed female replacement will be taking up the reins as CEO in a matter of weeks.
His resignation comes just 5 months on from an embarrassing poll instigated by Musk, when he asked Twitter if he should vacate the position. 57.5 per cent of more than 17 million Twitter users said yes.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk tweeted at the time.
After months of what Musk deemed an overhaul of the social media company, but which others would call anarchy, Twitter employees and users alike were far from sympathetic or encouraging of Musk’s announcement.
“WHAT TOOK U SO LONG??? RUINED THIS APP,” one person posted. Another added: “ … have you considered transitioning to another company instead? Seems like there is most likely (definitely probably) a better fit out there. Better for us, at least.”
Musk’s controversial tenure included firing the majority of Twitter employees – with a large cohort of those remaining quitting on their own. He also reinstated the profiles of several divisive, far-right figures including Donald Trump and Kanye West who had been suspended from the platform.
Others mocked his announcement further, suggesting that the new CEO would be called ‘Elonia’, doctoring images of Musk to look like a woman.
Another user humorously asked ChatGPT to speculate who Musk might appoint as CEO.
Possible candidates included Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, Sarah Friar, the CEO of Nextdoor and Aileen Lee, the founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures.
Musk had always suggested that his role as CEO would be temporary, conceding that it was “too much work” and that he had often been sleeping at the social media company’s San Francisco headquarters while rolling out his master plan.
Many have criticised Musk for letting the running of Twitter overrule his other high-profile jobs running Tesla and SpaceX.
Twitter has also been contending with a significant drop in advertising revenue – tipped to be less than $US3 billion this year, compared with $US4 billion in 2022.