Elon Musk Denies Report James Murdoch Poised to Be Tesla Chairman

Mr. Musk did not elaborate on the same.

Media magnate James Murdoch has emerged as a front runner to take over as chairman at Tesla following Elon Musk’s recent ousting.

The younger son of media mogul Rupert, Murdoch also serves as a director on Tesla’s board, where he has done so since 2017.

This news comes on the heels of word that James is stepping down after the sale of 21st Century Fox’s assets to Disney wraps up. Murdoch is said to be interested in taking the job, according to the report. Ironically, Murdoch joined as part of a bid to bring fresh perspective to a board that’s always been perceived as too beholden to (and too slow to rein in) the impulses of the company’s controversial CEO. So far, he had lead the company and the board by himself. Filing to trademark a name would be a pretty intense strategy for furthering a prank, so it seems possible that this might be a real endeavor for Musk. It was an extremely short tweet and did not give away any details, merely stating that the FT article about Murdoch being a front runner was “incorrect”.

The billionaire seems to be back to his usual antics after a $20 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last week, a federal judge had ordered the SEC and Musk to justify their securities fraud settlement, which let Musk remain CEO, by October 11.

Murdoch is now a non-executive director on Tesla’s board – a position he has held since a year ago – but other than that he isn’t really known for his work in the automotive industry. He can not be reelected as the Chairman of Tesla, for at least 3 years. In addition, Tesla appears to have initially applied for this trademark in Jamaica back in April and is asserting a US priority date based on that foreign application.

These reports that Elon Musk was starting his own digital currency company, appeared on a website that looked very similar to the CNN Tech site. It was impossible to locate the creators of the website.

Musk used his Twitter account (now supposedly monitored) to issue a curt denial of the report.

However, on Thursday Musk and the SEC urged a federal judge to approve the terms of the proposed consent judgment that requires Musk to resign as Tesla’s chairman and personally pay a $20 million fine to the SEC.

Elon Musk has denied a report that James Murdoch is the top choice to be the next chairman of Tesla.