Speaker 1: Let's get to our next story. Elon Musk confirming that
Speaker 1: he will step down as CEO of Twitter. Joining us
Speaker 1: now to discuss this is lad Sevof, who is Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: tech editor in Tokyo. Glad he doesn't seem to take
Speaker 1: these things too seriously. He's always kind of poking fun.
Speaker 1: Let me just read out his tweet for our audience.
Speaker 1: I will resign as CEO as soon as I find
Speaker 1: someone foolish enough to take the job. After that, I'll
Speaker 1: just run the software and servers team. So I guess
Speaker 1: he thinks it's a bit of fun. Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: tough to say. I mean, he's spent forty four billion
Speaker 1: dollars in this company. I don't know how anyone on
Speaker 1: this planet can take that. It's just a bit of
Speaker 1: fun um. Some of it may just be putting a
Speaker 1: happy and an upbeat face on a situation that has
Speaker 1: really deteriorated over the course of the year. I mean,
Speaker 1: if we if we wind the cluickback, It's fascinating to
Speaker 1: look at this because when early in the spring, Musk
Speaker 1: announces that he had bought a significant chunk of Twitter shares,
Speaker 1: uh the share price went up so high that he
Speaker 1: made the quickest one billion dollars in history. Like his
Speaker 1: share of Twitter just because he bought a share of
Speaker 1: it shut up in value by a billion dollars. But
Speaker 1: since then he wanted to wind it back. He wanted
Speaker 1: to not complete the sale. UM the acquisition UM he
Speaker 1: complained about but uh, he he heard his own reputation.
Speaker 1: His reputation was as a successful entrepreneur, as a leader
Speaker 1: of tester that so on um and making breakthrough changes.
Speaker 1: He hasn't done that and since taking over at the
Speaker 1: end of October with Twitter, um, his track record has
Speaker 1: again not being one of success. Um. He ran a
Speaker 1: pole saying should I step down as Twitter CEO? And
Speaker 1: this is the thing that's prompting him now to step down?
Speaker 1: Users said yes you should as many years faces on
Speaker 1: point ten million people, Uh said yes you should step
Speaker 1: down as CEO? And um, I mean it's not a
Speaker 1: happy situation, even if he's put it on a happy face.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about potential new CEO. Is he or
Speaker 1: musk joking? Or who wants the job? Well, okay, let's
Speaker 1: unpack this. Is there anybody left in management? A lot
Speaker 1: of people got fired? Or do you go external. And
Speaker 1: I'm only half joking here, Snoop Dogg through his hat
Speaker 1: in the ring. I mean he is a successful businessman.
Speaker 1: Let's give him that. That is fair. Snoop Dogg is
Speaker 1: a successful businessman. He's probably as qualified as Musque to
Speaker 1: run a social media company. I do believe that Musk
Speaker 1: himself probably underestimated many of the challenges of doing that,
Speaker 1: because he came in saying what Twitter needs is free
Speaker 1: speech absolutism, It needs clear rules of the road, and
Speaker 1: it needs to get rid of all these arbitrary decisions,
Speaker 1: which is true. Twitter's previous management did have a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of moderation challenges where I had to decide is
Speaker 1: this acceptable to have on the Internet. Now, what Mosque
Speaker 1: has faced again in a very brief period of time
Speaker 1: is very similar things. Um yeah, when we're known as
Speaker 1: Kanye West is a friend of his, well at least
Speaker 1: a former friend of his, and he was previously temporarily
Speaker 1: suspended from the service. He came back on mosques urging.
Speaker 1: Mosque said welcome back, and then he posted and submitted
Speaker 1: tweets and the mosque is like, Okay, this is not acceptable.
Speaker 1: We have to get rid of you. Um, so it
Speaker 1: is a very challenging task. Who can take over the job.
Speaker 1: There is nobody leftnally, I mean Mosque clear the house.
Speaker 1: In terms of the original executive team. Um. He has
Speaker 1: an inner circle of trusted friends. Amongst them there is
Speaker 1: David Sachs Um and Jason Calacanists, two of them hosts
Speaker 1: the podcast together. Um. They have been very vocal in
Speaker 1: their suggestions about how you can monetize Twitter, but that's again,
Speaker 1: I'm not really a normal things for that. For years,
Speaker 1: they need advertising, um. And there's an inherent conflict between
Speaker 1: opening this up to you know, things like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: racial comments and hate speech and such. Advertisers don't like that.
Speaker 1: They want more stability in the product. So whoever takes
Speaker 1: this job ultimately is going to have a very tough task. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And there's two points. That one is exactly as you say,
Speaker 1: Mosques presence a CEO currently has been one of volatility.
Speaker 1: Has been a great drama. It's been really fascinating. But
Speaker 1: as you say, that's not a way to run a
Speaker 1: business or a company or to have steady revenues. So
Speaker 1: let's challenge number one, Challenge number two, and it's probably
Speaker 1: the bigger one. And it's why I think Musque is
Speaker 1: accurate in saying it's kind of poison Chatters, is that
Speaker 1: you can't run this company as an independent CEO. He
Speaker 1: will always influence you. He he is going to still
Speaker 1: be in charge of Twitter engineering, for one, but when
Speaker 1: he was a Twitter user and a very important one,
Speaker 1: and when he was a Twitter investor who's very vocal
Speaker 1: about what he wanted, So a CEO would have actively
Speaker 1: be somebody too, so compone the criticism that Twitter receives,
Speaker 1: such as the aforementioned FTC investigation that's deepening. And then
Speaker 1: somebody who effectively does masks spitting right. Well, we'll see
Speaker 1: who he selects uh and if they get along. It's
Speaker 1: an ongoing story. Thank you so much Flat for joining
Speaker 1: his Flat Seve Off Bloomberg's chech editor in Tokyo