A bookmaker has revealed that fellow South African American entrepreneur and PayPal founder David Sacks is the favorite to take over Elon Musk as Twitter CEO.
Musk is poised to step down as Twitter head after users on the social media site voted overwhelmingly in favor of him resigning in a poll he created on Sunday, following a turbulent period running the network mired in controversy.
Some 57.5 percent of the 17.5 million votes said that he should resign, while 42.5 percent said he should not, in what was described as the final results.
Sacks, a close confidant of Musk's and a part of the so-called "PayPal Mafia" has 5-2 odds of replacing Musk, according to numbers sent to Newsweek by BetOnline.ag.
The "PayPal Mafia" is a group of former PayPal employees and founders that have since founded other technology companies. Sacks was the founding COO of PayPal and the CEO of the social media app Yammer, which was sold to Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 billion. He also hosts the popular All-In podcast.
Venture capitalist and podcaster Sriram Krishnan is the runner-up, with 7-2 odds to succeed the Tesla CEO. He hosts the Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show podcast, which features interviews in the technology industry, with his wife, Indian American entrepreneur Aarthi Ramamurthy.
Russian-American AI researcher and podcast host Lex Fridman is the third most likely to succeed Musk, with 9-2 odds. Fridman regularly interacts with Musk on the social media platform, offering his opinions on how to run the platform.
On his Lex Fridman Podcast, he pitched the idea of running the site for free to Musk. "Let me run Twitter for a bit. No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world. Just offering my help in the unlikely case it's useful, " Fridman tweeted on Monday.
Fun suggestion @elonmusk:
— Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) December 18, 2022
Let me run Twitter for a bit. No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world.
Just offering my help in the unlikely case it's useful.
Musk responded: "You must like pain a lot. One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?"
Internet entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis is part of Musk's inner circle. He has odds of 5-1, while Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter's former head of product who claimed he was "asked" to leave by former CEO Parag Agrawal in May, has odds of 6-1.
Calacanis who invested in companies including Uber and Robinhood, co-hosts two podcasts: This Week in Startups and All-In. Vox reported that he had a role in Musk's controversial idea to start charging Twitter users $8 a month to get the platform's verified blue checkmark.
Entrepreneur and computer programmer Kevin Systrom has 8-1 odds.
Some unlikely contenders include rapper Snoop Dogg, who, in response to Musk's poll, made his own asking "Should I run Twitter?" Over 80 percent said "yes" and only 19 percent said "no." to Tha Doggfather rapper who has odds of 75-1.
These odds are still better than Twitter founder Jack Dorsey taking over as CEO. His odds of returning are 100-1.
Podcaster Joe Rogan has 66-1 odds to take over as Twitter boss, while Donald Trump Jr. has 50-1 odds.
Newsweek has contacted Fridman, Sacks, Krishnan, Calacanis, Beykpour, and Snoop Dogg for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jack Dutton is a Newsweek Reporter based in Cape Town, South Africa. His focus is reporting on global politics and ... Read more
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