WEBVTT - Vlad Savov on Twitter (Audio)

0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.800
<v Speaker 1>Let's get to our next story. Elon Musk confirming that

0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.120
<v Speaker 1>he will step down as CEO of Twitter. Joining us

0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.280
<v Speaker 1>now to discuss this is lad Sevof, who is Bloomberg's

0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.880
<v Speaker 1>tech editor in Tokyo. Glad he doesn't seem to take

0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.720
<v Speaker 1>these things too seriously. He's always kind of poking fun.

0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:21.640
<v Speaker 1>Let me just read out his tweet for our audience.

0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.400
<v Speaker 1>I will resign as CEO as soon as I find

0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.080
<v Speaker 1>someone foolish enough to take the job. After that, I'll

0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.240
<v Speaker 1>just run the software and servers team. So I guess

0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:36.040
<v Speaker 1>he thinks it's a bit of fun. Well, it's it's

0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.920
<v Speaker 1>tough to say. I mean, he's spent forty four billion

0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:41.479
<v Speaker 1>dollars in this company. I don't know how anyone on

0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:43.920
<v Speaker 1>this planet can take that. It's just a bit of

0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.239
<v Speaker 1>fun um. Some of it may just be putting a

0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.919
<v Speaker 1>happy and an upbeat face on a situation that has

0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.640
<v Speaker 1>really deteriorated over the course of the year. I mean,

0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.440
<v Speaker 1>if we if we wind the cluickback, It's fascinating to

0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:01.200
<v Speaker 1>look at this because when early in the spring, Musk

0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:05.400
<v Speaker 1>announces that he had bought a significant chunk of Twitter shares,

0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.080
<v Speaker 1>uh the share price went up so high that he

0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.480
<v Speaker 1>made the quickest one billion dollars in history. Like his

0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.240
<v Speaker 1>share of Twitter just because he bought a share of

0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.080
<v Speaker 1>it shut up in value by a billion dollars. But

0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.360
<v Speaker 1>since then he wanted to wind it back. He wanted

0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.800
<v Speaker 1>to not complete the sale. UM the acquisition UM he

0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.640
<v Speaker 1>complained about but uh, he he heard his own reputation.

0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.760
<v Speaker 1>His reputation was as a successful entrepreneur, as a leader

0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.160
<v Speaker 1>of tester that so on um and making breakthrough changes.

0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.160
<v Speaker 1>He hasn't done that and since taking over at the

0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.360
<v Speaker 1>end of October with Twitter, um, his track record has

0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.160
<v Speaker 1>again not being one of success. Um. He ran a

0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.959
<v Speaker 1>pole saying should I step down as Twitter CEO? And

0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.840
<v Speaker 1>this is the thing that's prompting him now to step down?

0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.760
<v Speaker 1>Users said yes you should as many years faces on

0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.120
<v Speaker 1>point ten million people, Uh said yes you should step

0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.440
<v Speaker 1>down as CEO? And um, I mean it's not a

0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.800
<v Speaker 1>happy situation, even if he's put it on a happy face.

0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.880
<v Speaker 1>So let's talk about potential new CEO. Is he or

0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.480
<v Speaker 1>musk joking? Or who wants the job? Well, okay, let's

0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.880
<v Speaker 1>unpack this. Is there anybody left in management? A lot

0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.840
<v Speaker 1>of people got fired? Or do you go external. And

0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.880
<v Speaker 1>I'm only half joking here, Snoop Dogg through his hat

0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.720
<v Speaker 1>in the ring. I mean he is a successful businessman.

0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:26.880
<v Speaker 1>Let's give him that. That is fair. Snoop Dogg is

0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:31.520
<v Speaker 1>a successful businessman. He's probably as qualified as Musque to

0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:36.000
<v Speaker 1>run a social media company. I do believe that Musk

0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.040
<v Speaker 1>himself probably underestimated many of the challenges of doing that,

0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.959
<v Speaker 1>because he came in saying what Twitter needs is free

0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.160
<v Speaker 1>speech absolutism, It needs clear rules of the road, and

0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.480
<v Speaker 1>it needs to get rid of all these arbitrary decisions,

0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.000
<v Speaker 1>which is true. Twitter's previous management did have a whole

0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.520
<v Speaker 1>bunch of moderation challenges where I had to decide is

0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.200
<v Speaker 1>this acceptable to have on the Internet. Now, what Mosque

0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.040
<v Speaker 1>has faced again in a very brief period of time

0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.320
<v Speaker 1>is very similar things. Um yeah, when we're known as

0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.639
<v Speaker 1>Kanye West is a friend of his, well at least

0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.959
<v Speaker 1>a former friend of his, and he was previously temporarily

0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.919
<v Speaker 1>suspended from the service. He came back on mosques urging.

0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.960
<v Speaker 1>Mosque said welcome back, and then he posted and submitted

0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.040
<v Speaker 1>tweets and the mosque is like, Okay, this is not acceptable.

0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.200
<v Speaker 1>We have to get rid of you. Um, so it

0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.560
<v Speaker 1>is a very challenging task. Who can take over the job.

0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.600
<v Speaker 1>There is nobody leftnally, I mean Mosque clear the house.

0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:37.480
<v Speaker 1>In terms of the original executive team. Um. He has

0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.280
<v Speaker 1>an inner circle of trusted friends. Amongst them there is

0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:44.080
<v Speaker 1>David Sachs Um and Jason Calacanists, two of them hosts

0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:48.720
<v Speaker 1>the podcast together. Um. They have been very vocal in

0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.720
<v Speaker 1>their suggestions about how you can monetize Twitter, but that's again,

0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.360
<v Speaker 1>I'm not really a normal things for that. For years,

0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.760
<v Speaker 1>they need advertising, um. And there's an inherent conflict between

0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.320
<v Speaker 1>opening this up to you know, things like, um, you know,

0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:09.320
<v Speaker 1>racial comments and hate speech and such. Advertisers don't like that.

0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.880
<v Speaker 1>They want more stability in the product. So whoever takes

0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:18.960
<v Speaker 1>this job ultimately is going to have a very tough task. Absolutely,

0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.719
<v Speaker 1>And there's two points. That one is exactly as you say,

0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.919
<v Speaker 1>Mosques presence a CEO currently has been one of volatility.

0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.359
<v Speaker 1>Has been a great drama. It's been really fascinating. But

0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:31.240
<v Speaker 1>as you say, that's not a way to run a

0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.200
<v Speaker 1>business or a company or to have steady revenues. So

0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.559
<v Speaker 1>let's challenge number one, Challenge number two, and it's probably

0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.680
<v Speaker 1>the bigger one. And it's why I think Musque is

0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:43.520
<v Speaker 1>accurate in saying it's kind of poison Chatters, is that

0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.599
<v Speaker 1>you can't run this company as an independent CEO. He

0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.120
<v Speaker 1>will always influence you. He he is going to still

0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.719
<v Speaker 1>be in charge of Twitter engineering, for one, but when

0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.880
<v Speaker 1>he was a Twitter user and a very important one,

0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:57.480
<v Speaker 1>and when he was a Twitter investor who's very vocal

0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.400
<v Speaker 1>about what he wanted, So a CEO would have actively

0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.640
<v Speaker 1>be somebody too, so compone the criticism that Twitter receives,

0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:08.640
<v Speaker 1>such as the aforementioned FTC investigation that's deepening. And then

0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.320
<v Speaker 1>somebody who effectively does masks spitting right. Well, we'll see

0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.960
<v Speaker 1>who he selects uh and if they get along. It's

0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.360
<v Speaker 1>an ongoing story. Thank you so much Flat for joining

0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.360
<v Speaker 1>his Flat Seve Off Bloomberg's chech editor in Tokyo