Elon Wants Some Twitter Help

Imagine taking the job! Yesterday Elon Musk tweeted a poll asking if he should step down as “head” of Twitter Inc.; 17.5 million people voted, and the results were 57.5% to 42.5% in favor of him stepping down. “I will abide by the results of this poll,” he said. But he also tweeted “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.” And: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.” And: “The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.” And, listing qualifications for the next chief executive officer: “You must like pain a lot. One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?”

Meanwhile Musk has been trying to raise money for Twitter at $54.20 per share, the $44 billion valuation at which he bought it; he said in October that he was “obviously overpaying.” Since then things have, uh, not gone well. So the proposition is … what? You take all of your money, you give it to Musk to buy equity in his company at a price that you all agree is absurd? And then you get to work for him, running a sullen and broken Twitter according to his ever-shifting whims, until he changes his mind and fires you? And when he fires you he denies you severance and dares you to sue, and accuses you of being a sex criminal?