Elon Musk says he has appointed new Twitter boss

Image source, Getty Images

Elon Musk

Elon Musk says that he has found a new person to lead Twitter.

He announced the news on the social media platform, which he bought last year for $44bn (£35.2bn).

Mr Musk did not name the site's new boss but said "she" would start in six weeks at which point he would become executive chairman and chief technology officer.

Mr Musk has been under pressure to name someone else to lead the company and focus on his other businesses.

The billionaire, who also leads electric carmaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, Musk, said in November he expected to reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader.

Last year, after a poll asking users of the platform whether he should step down, he joked: "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive."

He told the BBC last month that his dog was running the company, which he purchased only after a lawsuit forced him to go through with the deal.

He has said he overpaid for the site, which has struggled to be profitable.

Upon taking charge, Mr Musk immediately fired thousands of staff. His changes to content policy have also been controversial, including among the advertisers that were the site's main revenue-generators.

Shares in Tesla jumped on the latest news.

In December, major investors in the firm - many of them long-time allies of Mr Musk - publicly accused Mr Musk of abandoning Tesla after his takeover of Twitter and damaging the car company's brand.

The fact that Mr Musk sold roughly $20bn worth of Tesla shares last year - sales that weighed on the stock and were prompted at least in part by the Twitter purchase - did not help.