Elon Musk confirmed Friday that he has tapped former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino as the next CEO of Twitter, concluding a months-long search for a successor to lead the embattled social media platform.
“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,” Musk tweeted. “Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
Musk is shifting to a role as Twitter’s executive chairman and chief technology officer. A day earlier, Musk tweeted that Twitter’s next CEO would take over in about six weeks.
Musk’s tweet came hours after NBCUniversal announced Yaccarino was leaving her post as head of advertising “effectively immediately.”
“It has been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team,” Yaccarino said in an earlier statement.
“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.”
The announcement marks the latest step in Musk’s ongoing overhaul of Twitter. The billionaire has said for months that he would step down as CEO as soon as he found a suitable replacement.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk tweeted last December.
As CEO, Yaccarino will be tasked with spearheading the company’s business as it places increased emphasis on its “Twitter Blue” subscription service and other new features.
She also will seek to boost relations with corporate advertisers, who fled in droves last year over Musk’s chaotic changes to account verification and content moderation.
Recent court filings revealed that Musk had merged Twitter into a new firm called X Corp. Musk has described his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter as an “accelerant” for this plans to build a super-app he calls “X.”
Musk has suggested the app could be similar to Tencent-owned WeChat, which allows users access to an array of services ranging from payments to food delivery and beyond.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
