According to a new, brow-raising WSJ report, Tesla’s board quietly began searching for Elon Musk’s potential successor about a month ago, approaching executive search firms as the carmaker faced protests, plummeting sales, and shrinking profits while Musk waded into Washington to slash government spending.
Board members reportedly met with Musk to express concerns about his divided attention, telling him he needed to spend more time on Tesla and to publicly commit to doing so; per the Journal report, Musk didn’t push back and subsequently told investors he would “allocate far more time to Tesla” starting in May.
Tesla chair Robyn Denholm said in a statement released overnight that it was “absolutely false” that the company approached recruitment firms. She also claimed “this was communicated to the media before the report was published.” Musk shared the statement and argued it was an “EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS.” The WSJ has since said Tesla never responded to the reporters’ questions.
Musk’s government work led to Tesla’s first annual sales decline in over a decade; it also tarnished the company’s brand image among some consumers due to his political alignment. The impact has been fast and furious: Tesla’s market value dropped from $1.5 trillion in December to about $900 billion currently.
Despite these challenges, Musk sounded optimistic about Tesla’s future during last week’s earnings call, where the company reported a 71% profit decline and 9% revenue drop.”We’re not on the ragged edge of death,” Musk assured investors, “not even close.”
The current status of the succession planning remains unclear, according to the Journal. It adds that it’s unclear whether Musk, who has run Tesla for nearly 20 years, was aware of the effort.
This story has been updated to include statements from Tesla and the WSJ.
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