Linda Yaccarino is the new CEO of Twitter
Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, said on Thursday that he has named a successor, and it didn’t take long for that person’s identity to be made public. Less than a day later, Musk announced that Linda Yaccarino, the chief of ad sales at NBCUniversal, would be accepting the position. In around six weeks, Yaccarino is anticipated to begin in her new position.
Yaccarino “will primarily focus on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology,” Musk stated in his letter. Looking forward to working with Linda to make X, the all-encompassing app, out of this platform.
Reports indicated that Yaccarino was in negotiations for the role soon after Musk said he was resigning as CEO to take the chief technological officer and executive chair positions at Twitter. NBCU officially announced Yaccarino’s departure from the organization on Friday. Given that NBCU is scheduled to present its next programming slate to advertisers early next week, that isn’t exactly the best time for the firm.
Yaccarino has maintained NBCU’s strong connections with Twitter. Recently, the two parties increased their collaboration for the 2024 Olympic Games, during which Twitter will carry video from the competition. Around the time that word of the firms’ renewed partnership broke, Yaccarino tweeted to Musk. “Hey, @elonmusk, how about Periscope for Paris 2024 as part of our new partnership? Let’s just start with high resolution,” Yaccarino wrote.
Yaccarino could be able to help Twitter mend its strained bonds with some of its advertisers. There were rumors that several of Twitter’s biggest advertisers temporarily ceased spending money on the site in the months after Musk’s takeover of the firm. Under Musk’s more lax approach to content control, several were alleged to have raised worry about their advertisements showing up close to hate speech and false information.
Musk purchased Twitter in October, and his stay there has been, to put it mildly, turbulent. Over the past seven months, it seems like not a day has passed without something involving Elon Musk and Twitter happening, from rapidly ousting the previous leadership team and letting thousands of employees go to pushing through with a plan to delete dormant accounts (even those of the deceased).
Musk polled Twitter followers in December on whether he should continue serving as CEO or choose a replacement. After more than 17.5 million votes, the majority (57.5%) supported Musk’s resignation. As soon as he could find someone to take over, Musk pledged to do exactly that and concentrate on the technical aspect of Twitter’s operations. After five months, it appears that he kept his promise.
Tesla’s share price increased shortly after Musk announced that he is leaving his position as CEO of Twitter. Musk may need to pay Tesla more attention given that the firm is struggling to meet its target of delivering 1.8 million vehicles this year despite several price cuts and that the Cybertruck may be delayed once again as a result of a delay in the supply of batteries. Stockholders seem happy that he could be able to spend more time on Tesla, although reports suggest he might be leaving his role as CEO at that business as well.
