Elon Musk says he has appointed new Twitter boss

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, he polled Twitter users over whether he should quit his role. The poll drew 17.5 million votes, with almost 60% calling for him to step aside.

After the vote Mr Musk 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 social media site, which has struggled to be profitable.

Mr Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, has said he took over Twitter to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.

He has also promised to reduce the number of spam bots on the site.

However, upon taking charge he sparked an outcry by immediately firing 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 - which have fallen by almost 30% in the last year - jumped on the latest news.

In December, major investors in the car 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 maker'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.

Despite Twitter's problems, Mr Musk said in March that the platform's finances were beginning to turn a corner following his cost-cutting measures,

The billionaire said most of the advertisers that abandoned Twitter after the acquisition had returned and the company could return to posting positive cash flow in the three months to June.