Elon Musk may be temporary CEO of Twitter after deal closes, report says

Elon Musk is expected to take on the CEO role at Twitter in a temporary capacity after his purchase of the company closes later this year, according to CNBC reporter David Faber. Faber says Musk detailed the plans in presentations to possible funders for the takeover.

Musk hasn’t publicly said what will happen to the company’s C-suite once the deal is complete, and current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal — who’s been in the role for just five months — has remained vague about his prospects of remaining on the job.

With Musk’s commitments to Tesla and SpaceX, where he’s also CEO, there had been speculation from big tech observers that he would have to hand off the top role at Twitter. Now, it sounds like that may happen — but not right away.

Reuters reported hearing from a source last week that Musk had already lined up a new CEO. And this morning, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal — a major Twitter investor who will remain invested in the private company — wrote that Musk would be “an excellent leader for Twitter” as it goes private.

Faber, who is reporting the plans, previously broke the news in November that Jack Dorsey would step down as Twitter’s CEO, so he’s clearly well-sourced in the Twitter world. Of course, with Musk involved, it’s always possible plans could change on the fly. Musk was supposed to join Twitter’s board last month, backed out, and is now taking over the entire company.

Twitter agreed to Musk’s $44 billion takeover last week. This morning, Musk revealed more than $7 billion in new funding.