Musk’s Twitter Distraction Eases, Tesla Could Benefit

Elon Musk’s choice of Twitter’s new CEO may remove a major distraction from the billionaire, allowing him to focus more on Tesla, which is struggling with declining demand for electric cars. No, analysts said.

Shares of the world’s most valuable electric car maker are up 40% this year, and about 2% in pre-bell trading on Friday. Shares had their worst year in 2022, dropping 65% as Mr. Musk made repeated offers on Twitter.

Since Musk bought Twitter in a $44 billion deal, Tesla investors have been wary of paying close attention to the company, which is competing on price with startups and traditional automakers. I’ve been afraid that I won’t be able to do it.

“For Tesla shareholders, this is just a small plus, because he is likely to spend a little more time with Tesla,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. “But there are other things competing for his time.”

Musk said on Thursday that he had found a new Twitter CEO, but did not name the person. The Wall Street Journal reported that Comcast NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino is in talks to head the social media platform.

The billionaire said he would take on the role of Twitter’s chief technology officer.

Hargreaves Lansdowne analyst Sophie Rand-Yates said: “Tesla investors will celebrate the move, too. Musk’s very hands-on approach on Twitter is a testament to the way he’s stepped away from the EV giant. “It leads to concerns that I was looking away.”

Twitter has taken up a lot of Musk’s time since the acquisition, but he still actively manages several other businesses, including SpaceX and Neuralink. Musk recently founded an AI company called TruthGPT to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet Inc’s Bard.

Mr. Musk’s involvement with Twitter is pretty confusing. He cut thousands of jobs at the social media company, laid off executives, including the CEO, and made many changes to policies and strategies to reduce reliance on advertising and increase reliance on subscription fees.