Elon Musk says he will find a new leader for Twitter

Elon Musk says he expects to reduce his time at Twitter. PHOTO: REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO - Billionaire Elon Musk said on Wednesday he expected to reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the social media company, adding that he hoped to complete an organisational restructuring this week.

Mr Musk made the remarks while testifying in a Delaware court to defend against claims that his US$56 billion (S$77 billion) pay package at Tesla was based on easy-to-achieve performance targets and was approved by a compliant board of directors.

Tesla investors have been increasingly concerned about the time that Mr Musk is devoting to turning around Twitter.

“There’s an initial burst of activity needed post-acquisition to reorganize the company,” Mr Musk said in his testimony. “But then I expect to reduce my time at Twitter.”

He also admitted that some Tesla engineers were assisting in evaluating Twitter’s engineering teams, but he said it was on a “voluntary basis” and “after hours”.

The billionaire’ s first two weeks as Twitter’s owner has been marked by rapid change and chaos. He quickly fired Twitter’s previous chief executive and other senior leaders and then laid off half of Twitter’s staff earlier this month.

Mr Musk sent an e-mail to Twitter employees early Wednesday, telling them they needed to decide by Thursday whether they wanted to stay on at the company to work “long hours at high intensity” or take a severance package of three months of pay. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS

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