Elon Musk is looking for a new chief executive officer for Twitter Inc., according to a person familiar with the search, after the billionaire lost a straw poll he posted on the social media site that asked whether he should relinquish his role as head of the company.
More than 10 million votes, or 57.5%, were in favor of Musk stepping down, according to results that came in Monday morning. Musk committed to abide by the results when he launched the survey, but nearly a day later he had tweeted more than 10 times without directly addressing the outcome. The search for a new CEO could be drawn out and not yield results quickly, said the person, who asked for anonymity discussing a private matter.
Musk responded to a tweet suggesting the poll may have been manipulated by bots with a single word: “interesting.” Announcing a new policy move in one of his first tweets after the poll, Musk said Twitter will restrict voting on major policy decisions to paying Twitter Blue subscribers. Responding to a Blue member going by the name Unfiltered Boss, Musk agreed with the suggestion that only subscribers should have a voice in future policy and said, “Twitter will make that change.” Twitter Blue had attracted about 140,000 subscribers as of Nov. 15, the New York Times has reported.
