Still Twitter boss Elon Musk never tires of emphasizing that he has no one in mind for his successor. There are a few potential candidates that keep coming up.
At the start of the survey as to whether Elon Musk should vacate his post as Twitter boss, the tech billionaire made it unmistakably clear: he will stick to the result. However, Musk has not yet complied with the demand of 57.5 percent of Twitter users who actually voted for his resignation from the top of the US group. His reason: He only wants to hand over the management of the company as soon as his successor has been clarified.
"I will step down as CEO as soon as I find someone dumb enough to take the job! After that I will just run the software and server teams," he wrote. At the moment there is little to suggest that the group's owner will quickly find a suitable candidate for the top job. Musk had already warned before the vote that there were no interested parties who were able to "actually keep Twitter alive".
Who will eventually take over from Musk is difficult to predict. According to the British broadcaster BBC, a few candidates are under discussion. The first speculation about the successor on Twitter was fueled by a photo from the Lusail Stadium at the final of the World Cup in Qatar. Jared Kushner can be seen alongside Musk. The photo with ex-President Donald Trump's son-in-law was taken just hours before Musk released the poll on his future as head of Twitter.
According to the report, it is also conceivable that Musk will name one of his few close confidants at the short message service as the new boss. Sriram Krishnan is an angel investor and tech guru who previously led engineering teams at Yahoo. He and his wife also run a podcast and YouTube channel. Even before Musk decided to put his future as Twitter boss to the vote, Fortune magazine touted him as a potential next boss earlier this year.
Two other possible candidates are part of the so-called PayPal mafia, a group of former employees of the payment service provider who have become the most influential entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley by founding other tech companies. Among others, David Sacks and David Marcus are under discussion. Both are at the top of Musk's most trusted list. Sacks is now a co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm specializing in investing in unicorn tech companies. He denied having an official role on Twitter during Musk's initial acquisition, but admitted he was involved, tweeting, "I have no official role. I'm not 'responsible' for anything."
Marcus is the former President of PayPal. He is one of the first tech executives to take an interest in cryptocurrencies, according to the BBC, and now heads cryptocurrency-focused firm Lightspark, which is working to "expand the possibilities" of Bitcoin.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has led the company twice. Speculations about a third attempt are not completely out of thin air. However, not only has Dorsey retired from Twitter, but he has also given up his seat on the board of directors. So he may not have a close relationship with Musk, even if he supported the takeover by the tech billionaire from the start, the BBC speculates.
Another person from the Twitter cosmos who might be considered for the post is Parag Agrawalk. Even though Musk fired the former Twitter boss immediately after the takeover, the report says he might be able to bring some stability back to the company.
Above all, Musk wants to make Twitter profitable. At Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg in particular largely redesigned the revenue strategy until June of this year. According to the BBC, she is also considered another serious name to succeed Musk. Finally, the platform has managed to generate profits from small business advertising.
The chaos and inconsistencies surrounding his successor show that Musk obviously did not prepare for his departure. And the assumption expressed by some observers that the survey started on Monday is part of a well-considered plan to hand over the management of the company in view of the chaos that has been caused in the past few weeks and can hardly be controlled is certainly not correct.
