Elon Musk plans to retire Tesla’s chairman title in three years since it is not needed to run the electric-car company. The Tesla Chief Executive Officer took to Twitter on Tuesday, saying that the title “is an honorific, not executive role, which means it’s not needed to run Tesla. Will retire that title at Tesla in 3 years.”
Mr. Musk, 47, posted the tweet while taking aim at CBS Corp’s 60 Minutes accusing the program of cutting out parts of his replies to questions about being forced to give up his role as Tesla chairman last month. “60 Mins edited out end of my sentence, where I said I could do whatever I want. They cut “provided I have the support of shareholders,” Musk tweeted.
The Silicon Valley billionaire had an interview on Sunday with 60 Minutes anchor Leslie Stahl in which he talked about relinquishing his position as Tesla chairman to Robyn Denholm, who previously served as a board member at the company. He is now asking CBS to make the full exchange public, saying it failed to air a section of the interview in which he explained why Tesla doesn’t need to have a chairman.
According to a transcript released by CBS News, Musk said, “I am the largest shareholder in the company. And I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want.” Musk claims CBS cut out the end of his sentence, in which he said: “provided I have the support of shareholders.”
Musk was forced to give up the position of Tesla chairman in November after reaching an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his “considering taking Tesla private tweets” in August. Under the terms of the agreement, Musk is also not supposed to seek re-election for three years.
In the “60 Minutes” program, the Tesla chief executive said that he chose Robyn Denholm as the new chairman, adding that it was not reasonable to expect her to babysit him. Samuel Dibble, a partner at Baker Botts law firm says it is unusual for a public company to operate without a chairman, though it is not illegal under US law.
A spokeswoman of Tesla has since provided what the company says is a more complete transcript of the comments that Musk made during the interview. Shares of Tesla ended the regular session on Tuesday with a gain of $1.61, or 0.44% to change hands at $366.76.
