- Elon Musk has named ex-NBCU exec Linda Yaccarino as Twitter's new CEO.
- His announcement appears to end frantic speculation around who would take up the role.
Elon Musk has named Linda Yaccarino as Twitter's new CEO, ending intense speculation about who the billionaire would appoint as his successor at the social-media platform.
"I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!" Musk wrote on Twitter Friday. "@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."
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023
Yaccarino resigned from her longtime role as advertising boss at NBCUniversal earlier Friday, but has yet to publicly comment.
The announcement appears to end the guessing game of who Musk would name as CEO, following his $44 billion takeover deal last year.
In an earlier tweet May 11, Musk said he had hired a new CEO for the company, and that "she" would be starting in around six weeks. The tweet triggered immediate speculation as to the candidate's identity, with Yaccarino quickly emerging as a possible frontrunner.
She inherits a tough gig.
Musk has presided over an era of chaos at Twitter, having shaken up the company with drastic layoffs that cut the employee count from 7,500 to about 1,000. Some advertisers, alarmed by the exodus of top ad execs from the company and the proliferation of misinformation on the site, have hit pause on ads. Musk has attempted to shore up Twitter's finances by rolling out paid features via subscription service Twitter Blue, though to mixed success.
On Friday, the mogul sought to assuage concerns about Yaccarino from Twitter's right-leaning faction, commenting: "I think people from both sides of the political spectrum will find Linda to be smart, fair and reasonable."
Musk has previously stated that his intention was to eventually step back from the Twitter CEO role, amid growing concerns from Tesla shareholders that he was not focusing enough on the EV company.
Still — he has indicated he will continue to be active at Twitter, taking the dual roles of executive chair and chief technology officer, a role in which he'll oversee product, software, and systems operations.