Analysts said Friday that Elon Musk’s new Twitter chief might liberate him from a significant distraction and allow him to focus more on Tesla Inc (TSLA.O).
Tesla shares, up 40% this year, dipped 2% as markets fell. In addition, Musk’s Twitter offer sank the stock by 65% in 2022.
Musk announced on Friday that NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino would become Twitter’s CEO once he becomes its CTO.
“Tesla investors are likely to celebrate this move too, with Musk’s very hands-on approach at Twitter leading to concerns he had taken his eye off the ball at this EV giant,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates said.
Tesla investors have feared that Musk may be unable to focus on the company, which is in a price war with upstarts and established automakers since he bought Twitter for $44 billion.
“This is a fractional positive for Tesla shareholders because he will likely spend a little bit more time on Tesla,” said Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster. “However, there are other things that are competing for his time.”
Musk manages SpaceX, Neuralink, and Twitter. Musk launched TruthGPT to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL.O) Bard.
Musk’s Twitter involvement is chaotic. He reduced thousands of jobs at the social media firm, sacked its top executives, including its CEO, and changed its policies and strategy to rely less on ads and more on subscriptions.