“Too much is too much”. This is how one could summarise the reasons that led the board of directors of Tesla to start the search for a new CEO called to replace Elon Musk at the helm of the electric car giant he founded, whose stock market and financial results are becoming more worrying by the day. This was revealed by Wall Street Journal, according to which the decision would have been taken after the collapse of stocks and profits of Tesla. Some investors believe that Musk is too busy supporting Donald Trump with his work as head of the Department of Civil Efficiency (Doge), which also seems destined to end soon, and is apparently neglecting Tesla. After the news was published, the company's board of directors denied the information, saying they had full confidence in Musk, although according to insiders, tensions within the board would be quite strong.
WSJ: Tesla Seeks Musk's Replacement
According to the most popular and authoritative American economic daily newspaper (conservative, by the way), at the end of March some members of the Tesla board of directors began to test the waters, initiating confidential contacts with companies specialized in the selection of managers in order to find a new CEO for the company. The decision would have come in view of the publication of first quarter accounts, closed with sales down 9% on an annual basis to 19,33 billion dollars and with a net profit plunge of 71% to 409 million. A terrible performance which was also affected the duties wanted by "friend Trump", which have made it more difficult to produce cars in the US, also affecting their sales in foreign markets, China first and foremost.
The numbers for the first three months of the year are then added to the negative performance achieved by Tesla on the Stock Market: since the beginning of the year, in fact, the title lost about 34% of its value, erasing all the gains achieved after the US elections of November 5 and falling below the threshold of one thousand billion dollars of capitalization (today it is at around 884 million). Without forgetting, finally, the ever lower brand popularity, which in some cases resulted in vandalism against the brand's vehicles and due to the citizens' reaction to the controversial political moves implemented by Musk as head of the Doge and his closeness to Trump.
All factors that have given rise to the desire among the advisors to kick out (at least in part) an increasingly absent and distracted Musk.
Musk distances himself from Doge
Il Wall Street Journal reports that in recent weeks the advisers have spoken directly with Musk, asking him to return to play a more active role within Tesla and above all to announce it publicly, in order to reduce the uncertainties that had contributed to the collapse of the stock on the stock exchange. It is not clear, however, whether the billionaire was informed of the decision to look for a new CEO.
The fact is that, last week, during a conference call with investors on the first quarter results, Musk anticipated the decision to make a partial backtrack, returning to to devote himself “almost full time” to Tesla. The world's richest man has explained that his time spent running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency will decrease significantly starting in May and that he plans to reserve only “a day or two a week” to the government effort.
Musk returned to the issue on Wednesday, saying that his federal workforce reduction initiative has so far done save $160 billion, much less than his initial projections (he had spoken of 2 thousand billion dollars) and uttering words that to many sounded like a farewell.
It’s been “an honor to work with your incredible cabinet,” he told Trump at the White House. “I just want to say thank you to everybody, it’s been an honor to work with you, so thank you for everything.” “There’s been a tremendous amount of work done in the first 100 days,” he added. “As everyone has said, it’s more than any previous administration has done. By far. So that bodes very well for what’s to come, for the rest of the administration.”
