Elon Musk has confirmed that former NBCUniversal ad executive Linda Yaccarino is the new CEO of Twitter.
“@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology,” Musk said in a Friday (May 12) tweet. “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
It had been reported Thursday (May 11) that Yaccarino was in talks to become the CEO of Twitter.
That report came after Musk tweeted earlier on Thursday that he had hired a new CEO, without identifying the person.
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
“She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” he said in the tweet.
On Friday, before Musk tweeted that Yaccarino joined Twitter, NBCUniversal announced in a press release that Yaccarino had left the company, effective immediately.
“We are grateful for Linda Yaccarino’s leadership of NBCUniversal’s Advertising Sales business, and for the innovative team and platform she has built,” Comcast Corporation President Mike Cavanagh said in the release. “Linda has made countless contributions to the company during her 12-year tenure, and we wish her the best.”
Yaccarino’s LinkedIn profile said she “has reengineered NBCUniversal’s advertising business for the 21st century,” highlighting her development of a unified, tech-enabled trading system — NBCUniversal’s One Platform — and her leadership of the launch of a first-party identity platform called NBCUnified that brings together consumer insights from all the company’s divisions.
“It has been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team,” Yaccarino said in the Friday press release. “We’ve transformed our company and the entire industry — and I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together and grateful to my colleagues and mentors, especially Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh and the entire NBCU leadership team.”
At Twitter, Yaccarino will face the challenge of reversing the wave of advertisers that have left the social media platform since it was acquired by Musk in October, Bloomberg reported Friday.
While the number of daily users of the platform has risen, the revenue generated by it has fallen by half after a “massive decline” in advertising, the report said.
In his Thursday tweet saying he had hired a new CEO, Musk said he will transition to being executive chair and chief technology officer, focusing on product.
Last year, just before closing the deal to purchase Twitter, Musk tweeted that buying the company was “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”
“X” was the original name of the payments company and online bank Musk started in 1999 that eventually merged with PayPal.
Musk has repeatedly stated that he plans to transform Twitter into a $250 billion super app payments company.
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