Gerber Kawasaki Co-Founder Ross Gerber joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss Elon Musk’s leadership of Tesla and Twitter, how Twitter is affecting the Tesla brand, what the board of directors at Tesla needs to do, and how he would run Tesla if he had the role.

Video Transcript

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- Tesla shares briefly moved higher this morning since turning lower, though. And that's after Elon Musk polled followers, asking if he should step down as Twitter CEO. Now, all this is multiple reports say Musk is approaching investors to help fund his purchase of Twitter, including Ross Gerber.

Well, joining us now to discuss is Ross Gerber, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth Investment Management CEO. Ross, good to have you on the show. I know you've been very vocal about this roller coaster that especially Tesla stock has been on since Musk took this on. What are your expectations now? We saw a brief shadow of hope, but back to reality we're seeing in the stock price right now.

ROSS GERBER: Yeah, and as far as I'm concerned, the lower it goes, the better opportunity for investors, as we're going to get resolution to this issue, I hope, the short term. And that's what I'm working very hard for.

And judging by Elon's comments, I think he is looking for a CEO now. And he just wants somebody who's going to make a very large commitment to doing it and financially and emotionally and physically. So he has very high expectations in the way he wants Twitter to be run. And I think the end game has a little bit more focus now.

- You could argue, Ross, you among many other investors in Tesla as well certainly pressuring Elon Musk, who you have said among many tweets that you just think this is unacceptable, that so much of the value from Tesla has been erased as a result of Elon's distraction with Twitter. I wonder what your bigger concern is here. Is it about the sale of his Tesla shares? Is it about the distraction? Is it about the brand dilution because of what he's been saying on the platform?

ROSS GERBER: Well, it's really a combination of three things that have really bothered me. And that's why I've announced that I'm running for the board of Tesla. It's time for Tesla's board to wake up and do their job because the job of the board is to protect shareholders and to provide guidance to people who want to invest in the company and have confidence in its future. And they've done nothing, absolutely nothing, a disgraceful nothing, not a word from anybody.

So it's time for somebody to move over and let me be there because I will do three things immediately. One is transparency. It's very important that we know what is the plan either for succession of Tesla eventually, like if Elon died, what would be the succession plan? And then secondly, what is the current short-term plan for Tesla's management and bringing Elon back to Tesla? And what is the time frame for that?

Number two, there needs to be transparency with the media. It needs to be very clear to people what's actually happening at Tesla. And Tesla has done a poor job of that since Elon stop telling everybody what's happening at Tesla, as he's focused on Twitter. And I would be doing weekly press conferences with the press, including tours of gigafactories for the mainstream media, so that people would be very informed on what's happening with Tesla because it's such a really important time for them.

And thirdly, I think it's crucially important that we end the stock sales or have transparency to what stock sales will or will not be happening into the future. If this is the end of the stock sales, then that should be that. And we need a standstill agreement with Mr. Musk so that he will not sell any more shares of Tesla and that investors can have confidence in buying the stock and knowing they're not going to get whacked the next day with another $5 billion share sale. So those are the three things I'm most focused on and bringing value back to Tesla and its shareholders as it goes into 2023, which will be a phenomenal year for the company.

- And Ross, we know that Leo KoGuan, who is the largest, the third largest individual shareholder in Tesla, he was saying, look, Musk is our employee. We don't actually need him there at Tesla. Do you agree? Would you still be as bullish about Tesla if Musk wasn't at the helm?

ROSS GERBER: I disagree with Leo. And Leo is supporting me. And I support him. And I understand his anger and frustration with Elon at the moment.

But that is not the best path for Tesla. The best path for Tesla is Elon Musk working full time on building Cybertrucks, which is going to be an incredible challenge for Tesla this year as they ramp the production of a very highly complex vehicle using new materials and a new manufacturing process.

Now, in my eight years at Tesla, there's one thing I can guarantee you, that ramp is for sure a big challenge. And Elon needs to be there every day in Austin making sure that this happens so I can get my Cybertruck this year.

- Ross, finally, turning our attention back to Twitter, those reports that Elon Musk's seeking new investors to buy in at $54.20 a share, which is what he bought Twitter at. You've confirmed those reports. You said you've been looking into client interest as well. What does that look like right now? And what's the path forward for this company?

ROSS GERBER: Well, I think there are a large amount of investors that want to invest into Elon's Twitter. And we've received inbound interest from clients and nonclients, even, who want to invest in Twitter. So there are a lot of people who believe in this vision and want to be a part of it. So I don't think that's surprising. There was very little time for investors in the first round to actually raise money because it happened kind of in a night.

So now they've given us maybe two weeks. But at least I think it gives the opportunity for other institutional and individual investors, like the ones we represent, to be involved with this investment. And I'm invested in it because I do believe over the long term this will be a good investment.

- Really quickly, Ross, any particular names that pop up that could follow Elon over at Twitter?

ROSS GERBER: Follow Elon, like to run it? I love to see John Legere--

- Replace, replace him, replace him.

ROSS GERBER: Yeah, I'd love to see John Legere at T-Mobile. He used to run T-Mobile. He's been a friend, a wonderful CEO. He's great with media. He's great with advertisers. He's great with people and branding. And I think it would be great for Twitter.

And what I think Elon needs is a great partner where he could be chief technology officer and focus on technology. And then you have a CEO media guy like John Legere would be just amazing. It would be such a successful company, I think, with that kind of structure. And separating those tasks would be the correct action for Twitter.

- Well, Ross, appreciate you hopping on the show today. Gerber Kawasaki cofounder and CEO Ross Gerber joining us there from LA.