Musk's Survey on 'Love'... Asked About Stake Sale and CEO Resignation Too

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Elon Musk, who conducted a pros and cons vote on the CEO position of the social networking service (SNS) Twitter, posted a 'surprise' poll on his Twitter account. He seemed to ask the public for their opinions through simple surveys on key corporate management issues such as Tesla share sales, Tesla Gigafactory construction, and the restoration of former U.S. President Donald Trump's account.

Musk, the CEO who has shown a 'quirky' approach by disclosing even information classified as confidential in corporate management on Twitter, has caused the stock prices of affiliated companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter to fluctuate with every word he utters.

Elon Musk Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

According to Bloomberg and others on the 19th (local time), Musk started a vote from 6:20 PM the previous day for 12 hours asking, "Should I step down as Twitter CEO?" As a result, more than half of the total respondents (about 17.5 million) voted in favor of Musk resigning from the CEO position, with 57.5% supporting it.

Musk declared before the vote that he would abide by the results, but has not yet issued an official statement regarding the voting outcome since the results were announced.

This is not the first time Musk has asked the public about such a critical company issue. Previously, in November last year, he conducted a vote on whether to sell 10% of Tesla shares. At that time, 3.5 million people participated in the vote, with 58% in favor. Musk tweeted shortly after the survey, saying, "I was prepared to accept any outcome." Five days after the survey results were announced, reports emerged that Musk sold about 4.5 million Tesla shares worth approximately $5 billion.

From this process alone, it appears that Musk actually followed the public's opinion. However, documents related to Musk's share sale reveal that the Tesla share sale was pre-arranged in mid-September last year, several weeks before the survey was conducted. Foreign media reported that the sale was made to secure funds to pay taxes on Tesla stock options held by Musk.

Bloomberg stated, "Musk has previously used surveys for plans that he might pursue regardless of external support," and evaluated this as "a method to diffuse corporate responsibility by simply appearing to follow people's opinions."

There is also an assessment that Musk, despite being Tesla's largest shareholder, tries to give small shareholders and the public the impression that they have influence over the company's core management issues.

In fact, Musk once asked on Twitter whether to introduce the cryptocurrency Dogecoin as a payment method for purchasing Tesla cars. Seventy-eight percent voted in favor, and the cryptocurrency market was subsequently shaken. Musk, who showed affection to the extent of earning the nickname "the father of Dogecoin," has allowed some products to be paid for with Dogecoin since January this year.

In February 2020, Musk conducted a survey asking, "Should Tesla open a Gigafactory in Texas?" About 300,000 people participated, with over 80% supporting it. Subsequently, construction of Tesla's fifth production plant, the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, began in July of the same year and officially started operations this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.