Twitter: Elon Musk announces Linda Yaccarino as new CEO – 05/12/2023 – Market

Elon Musk announced on Friday that Linda Yaccarino, former vice president of publicity for NBCUniversal, is the new CEO of Twitter. The information was given in a publication on the platform itself.

The billionaire, current CEO of the company, said that the professional will focus mainly on business operations. He will remain at the helm, but will focus on product design and new technologies.

Also via Twitter, Musk stated that he is looking forward to working with Linda and transforming the platform into X, the “app of everything”.

An old dream of the businessman, he had already written last year that his objective with the purchase of the company will be to take it to a new technological level. The billionaire has been chief executive of Twitter since the acquisition of the company for US$ 44 billion (R$ 218.6 billion) in October.

On Thursday (10), without naming a successor, Musk had written on Twitter that he was excited to announce that he had hired a new chief executive for X/Twitter. The person would start working in approximately six weeks.

Earlier on Friday, NBCUniversal announced that Yaccarino would be leaving the company “effective immediately.” His abrupt departure comes just days before NBCUniversal’s annual “upfronts” presentation — the biggest event of the year for television advertising.

Yaccarino, who had been tipped as a candidate for NBCUniversal’s chief executive after the departure of Jeff Shell last month, said on Friday that “it’s been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal.” The company did not say why she left.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that she was in talks for the position on Twitter.

Musk and Yaccarino recently appeared together at a conference in Miami, where they gave a talk titled “Twitter 2.0: From Conversations to Partnerships.” They seemed to have a good rapport onstage, with Yaccarino demonstrating a talent for public speaking, according to people who watched the performance.

The announcement comes as shareholders in Tesla, the maker of electric cars that the billionaire also runs, are putting increasing pressure on him to refocus on the company, whose shares have fallen by 30% over the past 12 months.

Shares in the company rose about 2% on the news of the Twitter command.

Musk said he would move into the roles of chief executive and vice president of technology at Twitter, “overseeing products, software and sysops [operações de sistemas]”.

Yaccarino, a well-regarded advertising executive, would bring a close relationship with marketers and advertising agencies to Twitter. Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said this would be a “top-notch signing” and “a big step forward, with Musk finally showing he’s not clueless”.

In December, he said he would resign as Twitter’s chief executive as soon as he found someone “foolish enough to take the job” after polling users about whether he should step down. The poll attracted 17.5 million votes, and 57.5% of voters called for him to step down.

His six months at the helm of the company were marked by a significant change, in which he reduced headcount by around 90% and relaxed content moderation. The measures have alienated some high-profile users and advertisers, hurting the social media platform’s revenue.

Musk has fluctuated between trying to court advertisers to bolster Twitter’s main source of revenue and publicly criticizing marketers who have turned away from the platform because they are concerned about moderation issues.

Yaccarino, who has worked at NBCUniversal for nearly 12 years, is one of the few advertising executives to defend Musk. In November, shortly after the takeover, she said she “wouldn’t bet against” the executive and that people should “give the guy a minute,” according to reports at the time.

In March, Musk said Twitter’s finances were improving after its cost-cutting efforts, to the point where the company could return to positive cash flow next quarter. It has also announced several new features in recent weeks, including encrypted messaging.

With New York Times. Translated by Paulo Migliacci