Tesla shares climbed Monday after a poll showed Twitter users want Elon Musk to stand down as the platform’s CEO.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Tesla rose in premarket Monday, after Twitter users voted for Elon Musk to stand down as the platform’s CEO.
Tesla shareholders believe Twitter has become a distraction for Musk, who’s also CEO of the EV maker.
Tesla shares have plummeted 30% since Musk completed his Twitter takeover in October.
Shares of Tesla rose in premarket trading Monday, after Twitter users voted in favor of Elon Musk standing down as CEO of the social platform.
Twitter CEO Musk asked his followers whether he should quit as CEO and said he would “abide by the results” of the 12-hour poll posted Sunday. More than half of the 17.5 million people who voted — 57.5% — backed a departure.
Several Tesla shareholders believe Twitter has become a distraction for Musk, who is CEO of the electric-vehicle maker as well as of the social platform and SpaceX. They have warned Musk’s leadership role at Twitter hurt Tesla’s share price, which has fallen 30% since he bought the social platform for $44 billion in October.
Tesla’s share price trended higher early Monday as updates to voting in the Twitter poll showed support for Musk to step down. The stock was up 4.73% at $157.30 soon after the voting closed.
Musk’s endorsement of the Republican party and lack of involvement at Tesla since taking over Twitter have both likely driven a downturn in the stock, veteran Wall Street analyst and self-proclaimed Tesla bull Gene Munster said last week.
“Elon is Tesla’s brand. He needs to pull it together,” Loup Capital’s Munster told CNBC. “He’s made these mistakes about running off on the mouth many times, and he needs to tighten up his message because he’s going to cause some long-term damage if he doesn’t right the ship.”
But Musk has blamed the Federal Reserve for the $600 billion decline in Tesla’s market value this year. He argued the US central bank’s interest-rate hikes have made the stock market less appealing to investors. Shares of fast-growing companies such as Tesla have been hit especially hard this year, as they’re primarily valued based on their future cash flows.