On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla’s board has been quietly searching for a potential replacement as CEO. This has been going on, apparently, for “about a month.” This move, of course, would be in response to Elon Musk’s insertion, botfly-like, into the heart of the Trump administration, spurring a nationwide protest movement and widespread disgust at what the weirdo is up to.
The results of Musk’s rampage through the government, from Tesla’s perspective, has been catastrophically diminished sales and a stock price down around 200 points since mid-December — though the stock’s trajectory has, cult-like, stubbornly refused to match where it really should be. From a bottom-line standpoint, it makes perfect sense that a company’s board would maybe consider the possibility of ousting the world’s most polarizing CEO.
Musk, of course, says otherwise. He called it a “breach of ethics” on the WSJ’s part, and quoted Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm’s denial of the report. Of course, Denholm doesn’t seem super enthused about what she called the company’s “exciting growth plan ahead” — she has sold $150 million of Tesla stock in the last six months, including a new $32 million sale just this week.
Reports have proliferated in recent weeks about the theoretical end of Musk’s starring role in the Trump administration, supposedly in response to those falling stock prices and sales numbers. Maybe that would be enough to placate a maybe-a-bit-edgy board at Tesla, or maybe he’ll suddenly find he doesn’t have a spot to step back to.
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