Musk convinced his board to hand him a monster pay package—but that was before Tesla lost more than $500 billion in market value.

Tesla’s board in March contacted multiple executive placement firms to begin a search process for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk at the helm of the embattled electric car company, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night,

Tesla board members reached out to multiple executive search firms to initiate the hunt for a new CEO as tensions mounted over the company’s plummeting stock price, sources familiar with the discussions told The Wall Street Journal.