Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, has found a new way to jolt the electric carmaker's bruised stock price: Tease that he'd step away from being Twitter's CEO.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? Musk posted to his 122.1 million followers on Sunday, and will be abided by the results of the poll.
More than 57% of 16 million votes voted Yes and Tesla was up 4.5% in pre-market trading as of early Monday.
The risk of operational miscues at Tesla has risen as Musk focuses on restructuring Twitter in a highly public, often chaotic manner.
The stock's biggest drawdown since its debut in 2010 is the stock's biggest drawdown and down 23% this month, and the shares of the EV maker are down 64% from a peak last November.
The losses for Tesla investors began after Musk offered to buy Twitter in April, a deal that closed in late October.
You need a CEO of Twitter that's not Musk, Wedbush analyst and long-time Tesla follower Dan Ives said on Yahoo Finance Live. This is an untenable situation in terms of him being CEO of Twitter and Tesla. Other concerns are around manufacturing issues and the pace of sales for Tesla in China, despite the uncertainty surrounding the country's COVID 19 policies, and the risk of slowing growth for Tesla in 2023 and beyond, as well as competition in the EV space that has only intensified this year.
Tesla is one of the most transformational companies to be built over the next five, six years, along with Apple, according to Tesla. It's a fundamental bullish view. I think the clock struck 12: 00 in terms of patience wearing thin on Musk. And I think that's what you start to see with a capitulation in Tesla in a risk-off market. Sozzi follows BrianSozzi on Twitter and LinkedIn.