Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc, said Monday he will lead Twitter, the social media company he just acquired for $44 billion, which analysts warn will strain him.
Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunnelling firm the Boring Company, fired Twitter's previous chief, Parag Agrawal, and other top company officials last week.
Tesla's stock has lost a third of its value since Musk made an offer to buy Twitter in April.
Musk had previously changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" in an allusion to his planned move. Twitter on Monday declined to comment on how long Musk might remain CEO or appoint someone else.
Twitter's new owner has ousted the company's board of directors and made himself the sole member of the board, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk later said on Twitter that the new board setup was temporary, but he did not elaborate.
Musk is already floating major changes for Twitter — and faces major hurdles as he begins his first week as the owner of the social media platform.
He's also testing the waters by asking users to pay for verification. A venture capitalist working with Musk tweeted a poll asking how much users would be willing to pay for the blue check mark that Twitter has historically used to verify higher-profile accounts so other users know it's really them.
Musk, whose account is verified, replied, “Interesting.”
Critics have derided the mark, often granted to celebrities, politicians, business leaders and journalists, as an elite status symbol.
But Twitter also uses the blue check mark to verify activists and people who suddenly find themselves in the news, as well as little-known journalists at small publications around the globe, as an extra tool to curb misinformation coming from accounts that are impersonating people.
The entire verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk tweeted Sunday in response to a user who asked for help getting verified.
Musk has made a number of pronouncements since early this year about how to fix Twitter, and it remains unclear which proposals he will prioritize.