After months leading Twitter, the company’s owner, Elon Musk, has tapped NBC Universal ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino to be the new CEO of Twitter, multiple news outlets reported Friday.
Musk and Yaccarino have been in discussions for several weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Yaccarino has been at NBC for more than a decade and been described as having a strong relationship with advertisers and marketing groups, which could help quell the ongoing concerns companies have with Twitter following Musk’s takeover,” the WSJ noted.
She currently serves as chair of global advertising and partnerships at the media company, overseeing a staff of thousands and about $13 billion in annual ad revenue.
Her hire will usher in a new era at Twitter, which has been in a period of upheaval. Musk has overseen months of mass layoffs, resignations and fleeing advertisers — Musk said in March that Twitter had seen a 50 percent drop in ad revenue after he bought the company for $44 billion last year.
Musk pledged to step down from Twitter last year after posting a poll on the site, saying he would appoint someone to fill his shoes once he found someone “foolish enough to take the job.”
Musk has not publicly named Yaccarino but said Thursday that the new CEO will start in about six weeks, after which he will transition to executive chair and chief technology officer.
Whether Yaccarino will restore Twitter’s pre-Musk culture, double down on the tech executive’s approach or transform it into something else entirely will be a key question of her tenure.
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023
