Elon Musk says new Twitter chief has been hired

SAN FRANCISCO

Elon Musk on Thursday said that he has hired someone to replace him as boss of Twitter and its newly named X Corporation parent.

"Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter," Musk said in a tweet, adding that she would start in the job in about six weeks.

Twitter users in December voted to oust owner Musk as chief executive in an unscientific poll he organized and promised to honor, just weeks after he took charge of the social media giant.

"My role will transition to being exec chair & chief technology officer, overseeing product, software & system operations," the billionaire tweeted.

Musk's running of Twitter has been criticised as taking the billionaire's attention away from his jobs running Tesla and SpaceX.

If Musk follows through on the announcement, he would belatedly fulfill a promise he made at the end of last year to honor the results of a poll he conducted at Twitter.

A total of 57.5 percent of more than 17 million accounts voted for him to step down.

"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" Musk tweeted at the time.

Musk has fully owned Twitter since late October and has repeatedly courted controversy as CEO, sacking most of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, suspending journalists and charging for previously free services.

He recently made the tech firm part of an "X" shell corporation, getting rid of the Twitter company name but continuing to use it for the platform.

The controversial billionaire has talked publicly of using Twitter to build an all-purpose "X" application that combines messages, payments and more.

He this week announced encrypted direct messages at Twitter, and that audio and video calls are going to be added to the platform.

The San Francisco-based company, which generates most of its revenue from advertising, is set to earn less than $3 billion in 2023, down from $4 billion in 2022, according to Insider Intelligence.