Elon Musk on Friday announced that Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s former head of advertising, will take over the role of Twitter CEO.
Musk has been leading the social network since he bought it for $44 billion last year. On Friday, Musk said he’ll remain in charge of product design and new technology as Twitter’s CTO, while Yaccarino will focus on business operations.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk said in a tweet. “@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.
Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023
On Thursday, Musk said he’d hired a new CEO for Twitter, which as of April is officially X Corp., without giving a name. Speculation began to swirl around Yaccarino when NBCUniversal on Friday morning confirmed she was leaving the media company.
Yaccarino worked at NBCU for more than a decade, most recently serving as chairman of global advertising and partnerships, according to The Wall Street Journal. She also reportedly played a key role in launching the company’s ad-supported streaming service, Peacock.
Musk said Yaccarino would be starting in six weeks, but didn’t give a specific date. Twitter didn’t respond to questions on Yaccarino’s official start date and priorities once she takes the helm.
Should you expect a whole new Twitter?
With Musk continuing to lead the app’s product design, it’s unclear what impact Yaccarino will have on people’s everyday experiences on Twitter.
Yaccarino has experience in both the media and advertising worlds, which could help her rebuild relationships with advertisers that fled the social network after Musk bought the company.
Twitter has undergone a laundry list of changes since Musk took over the company, with many products and services rolling out haphazardly. The company also revamped its Twitter Blue subscription, adding features like longer tweets and text formatting, but also causing confusion and backlash over verified check marks.
The site has also experienced repeated outages in recent months, which could be due in part to Musk laying off thousands of employees at the company. Critics have also raised concerns about content moderation on Twitter, with some saying there’s been a rise in misinformation and hate speech on the platform since the staff cuts.
