Tesla Inc. shares rose in anticipation of Elon Musk stepping back from Twitter Inc., the social media company that has distracted him from running the electric-car maker for months.
Teslas stock advanced 0.7% as of 10:10 a.m. Monday, paring an earlier gain of as much as 3.3%. The shares have dramatically underperformed benchmark indexes since Musk took a stake in Twitter in early April and closed the acquisition in late October.
Musk, 51, tweeted Sunday that he would abide by the results of a poll asking whether he should step down as head of Twitter. Users cast more than 17.5 million votes, and 57.5% were in favor of him relinquishing the role.
Teslas chief executive officer has previously taken his cues from Twitter users on decisions ranging from whether he should trim his stake in the car company, to if he should reinstate former President Donald Trumps account. Whereas Musks decisions after those polls were relatively straightforward, its less clear what hell do next with Twitter. Musk has tweeted that it will be difficult to find another CEO and written that the company has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May.
No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive, he said in another post. There is no successor.Play Video
Analysts at Oppenheimer & Co. said in a note Monday they remain concerned about Twitter-related risks for Tesla and downgraded the stock to the equivalent of a hold rating.
While Oppenheimers team led by Colin Rusch has tried to separate Elon Musks non-Tesla endeavors from their analysis of the company, Musks acquisition and management of Twitter now make that separation untenable.
Tesla closed last week at a two-year low, costing Musk his position atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. While its CEO has been preoccupied with Twitter, the carmaker has been cutting prices and production in China and offering incentives for customers to take delivery of vehicles in the US.
(Updates with Oppenheimers downgrade in the sixth paragraph.)
With assistance from Thyagaraju Adinarayan, James Cone and Kit Rees.
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