his return to work at Tesla the board had begun a search for a new CEO.
"Wall Street Journal: Tesla’s board began the process to replace Elon Musk as CEO
Tesla’s board in March contacted multiple executive placement firms to begin a search process for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk at the helm of the embattled electric car company, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night, citing multiple anonymous sources.
It’s not clear what the time table would have been for Musk’s ouster or whether those search efforts remain in place, the Journal reported.
The stunning revelation suggests that Tesla’s moribund stock price (TSLA) – which tumbled as much as 45% this year before recovering somewhat amid a broader stock market rebound – wore on the board’s patience as Musk spent a significant amount of his time working for the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency initiatives."
In addition to that Musk may want to step down:
"In recent months, Musk has expressed to a confidant that he no longer wants to be CEO of Tesla, that person told the Journal. Musk reportedly said that he was concerned a replacement would fail to realize his vision to make Tesla a company that sells autonomous vehicles as its primary business – but he was motivated to leave anyway, perhaps, after he lost another court battle to receive his astronomically high pay package, the largest for any public company on record.
Musk owns 410 million shares of Tesla stock outright, equal to 12.8% of the company’s outstanding shares. He has also been granted options to buy an additional 304 million shares as his compensation for running the company since 2018."
It will be interesting to see what happens to the stock if he does walk away.