- 79% of CEOs surveyed at a Yale summit believe Elon Musk has become a detriment to the value of his companies.
- The majority of the executives also said companies should stop advertising on Twitter.
Even some of Elon Musk's peers don't seem to be too sure about his business decisions anymore.
A new poll of CEOs by Yale School of Management showed that 79% of the 100 executives that were surveyed believe Musk has become a "detriment" to the value of his companies. What's more, 69% of the CEOs said they believe that Twitter's best days are behind it and three-quarters of the executives said they do not think the company will be more valuable in five years.
The survey was conducted at the invitation-only Yale CEO Summit held last week. At the event — which hosted top CEOs in the world of tech, transportation, and finance — attendees were confidentially polled on a variety of business topics, including Musk's Twitter acquisition.
Many of the executives also had concerns with advertising on Twitter — which accounted for 90% of the company's revenue last year. 56% of CEOs that were polled said companies should stop advertising on Twitter and 100% said CEOs should care if their brands are associated with hate speech. Though, 65% said their organization has yet to pull its ads from the social media site — which reportedly saw an uptick in hate speech in the days following Musk's acquisition, though Musk has claimed it's declined.
Meanwhile, 98% of the executives agreed that the billionaire overpaid for Twitter when he purchased it for $44 billion in October.
A press release from the event said that some participants condemned Musk's power over Twitter and his "seemingly arbitrary decisions" at the company.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who hosted the summit, told Bloomberg that fans of Musk, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison had "explained away" the Tesla CEOs' behavior to him in the past, pointing to his success at the electric-car maker, as well as SpaceX.
"There have been some standout technological triumphs," Sonnenfeld told Bloomberg of Musk's track record. "But we could match each and every one of them with 10 failures that the media looks past because he dangles the new, shiny object and distracts you."
While Musk appears to have fallen out of favor with some executives at the Yale CEO Summit, Insider's Melia Russell previously reported that some tech founders hope to emulate the work Musk has done during his crackdown at Twitter — from massive layoffs to calls for workers to work "extremely hardcore." Last month, tech investor Daniel Friedberg said Musk's playbook at Twitter could set a new standard for Silicon Valley — "cut deep."
After several chaotic weeks as "Chief Twit," Musk has signaled his focus on Twitter could be nearing an end. On Tuesday, Musk said he will step down as CEO of Twitter as soon as he find someone "foolish" enough to replace him after 57.5% of Twitter users that responded to a poll on whether he should step down voted for Musk to resign as Twitter CEO. However, he added that he would still lead Twitter's software and server teams if no longer CEO, which would also be a big job likely to be time-consuming.
A future Musk resignation could come as a relief to some. Several Tesla shareholders have expressed concern that Twitter has become too much of a distraction for the carmaker's CEO. And Tesla's third largest shareholder, Leo KoGuan, said on Twitter last week that "Tesla needs and deserves to have working full-time C.E.O."
The electric-car maker's stock has plummeted over 50% this year. Though, shares of the EV company appeared to respond positively to the possibility of Musk stepping down as CEO of Twitter on Monday. The billionaire has offloaded nearly $40 billion worth of Tesla stock in the past 14 months.
Correction: December 21, 2022 — An earlier headline of this story misstated how many CEOs surveyed felt Musk was a "detriment." It was 79% of those polled, not 79 total CEOs.