Will the Murdoch’s get their hands-on Tesla? That’s the big question this morning as speculation mounts James Murdoch may replace Elon Musk as Chairman of the company.

The Financial Times is reporting Mr Murdoch is in the hot seat given he will leave his role as CEO of 21st Century Fox when Disney takes over the majority of it. James, the younger son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, is already on Tesla’s board as a non-executive director.

The Financial Times states that Mr Musk declined to comment, while Mr Murdoch referred calls to Tesla, which declined to comment. That sounds ominous to me. Although Elon has just tweeted…

Musk will stand down as chairman in mid-November but is still currently slated as remaining CEO. Musk found himself in a little hot water last month with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk came to an agreement to pay USD$20m to the regulators after earlier claiming Tesla had secured funding to go private.

As you’d expect Twitter is today full of aghast, with users claiming the Murdochs are circling. Something they are very good at indeed.