Musk says he will resign as head of Twitter when he finds a successor

Elon Musk said he will step down as head of Twitter when he finds a successor, but will continue to run some key parts of the social networking platform.

“I will step down as head as soon as I find someone naive enough to take the job. After that, I will only manage the teams responsible for software and servers,” Musk tweeted.

Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company in October was chaotic and provoked a number of controversies. Some investors were concerned that he was too distracted by Twitter to simultaneously run his Tesla electric car company, where he is personally involved in manufacturing and design issues.

Musk first mentioned his departure after Twitter users voted for his resignation in a poll launched by the billionaire on Sunday night.

Musk’s resignation was supported by 57.5 percent of about 17.5 million poll participants. Musk previously said he would submit to the results, but did not give a timeline for his departure.

The poll was the end of a tumultuous week during which changes were made to Twitter’s privacy policy and a number of journalists’ accounts were blocked and unblocked, drawing condemnation from news organizations, human rights groups and officials in Europe.

There have been calls on Wall Street for weeks for Musk to resign, and recently stockbrokers betting on Tesla stock growth expressed concern that his focus on the social network could distract him from running the electric-car maker.

Musk himself acknowledged that he had taken on too much, saying that he would be looking for an executive for Twitter. On Sunday, however, he noted that there is no successor yet, and that “no one who can keep Twitter is willing to take the job.”