Elon Musk has announced plans for a new Twitter CEO but hasn’t said who that is. In a tweet On Thursday, Musk said he had “hired a new CEO for X/Twitter” and that “she will start in about six weeks.” Musk will instead assume the role of CEO and chief technology officer, overseeing Twitter’s “products, software and sysops.”
Accordingly Dylan Byers of Puck Newsthe new CEO will be Linda Yaccarino, advertising director of NBC Universal, citing two unnamed sources.
The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that she was “in talks” to take on the position of Twitter’s CEO, and that an NBCU spokesman said Yaccarino is currently in “back-to-back rehearsals” for a preview to advertisers.
Twitter and NBCUniversal recently announced an expanded partnership for the service to increase NBCU’s coverage of the 2023 Olympics. Yaccarino tweeted to Musk that Twitter should bring Periscope back. She also recently interviewed Musk in person at the “Possible 2023” marketing event in Miami.
Though Musk will soon no longer be CEO, he still owns the company, which he renamed “X.” It seems unlikely that giving a specific title to someone else will make Twitter less wild. Musk became the “chief twit” last October when he completed the acquisition of the company, followed by the immediate firing of large chunks of senior management and thousands of other employees.
Another question is how Musk’s divided attention has affected his other companies (Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company — did we miss any?) and how it will affect them going forward. In December Tesla investors called openly Musk was forced to relinquish control of Twitter as the automaker’s share price fell to $101, just a third of its peak last year of around $314. Now, Tesla has slashed vehicle prices and is facing tighter margins in what some are calling an EV price war as the company faces more competition than ever.
As Musk has seemingly reshaped Twitter policy to suit his own whims, speculation as to how long his tenure would last — and the major impact it will have on his other companies — has only increased. The Musk era also brought changes that messed up Twitter’s relationships with users, public safety officials, and others.
Musk’s Twitter acquisition even impacted the platform’s advertising business. Several major advertisers halted spending on Twitter over concerns that Musk’s views on free speech would tarnish their reputations, and the wave of fake verified accounts that swept the platform after Musk’s revamped Twitter Blue was first launched didn’t help either.
Musk eventually rolled out a pricier Twitter Blue subscription, banned old “old” verified ticks for users with under a million followers, and initiated a UI overhaul that put users between an algorithmically sorted, recommendation-based “For You” Timeline and a “For You” timeline switch back and forth chronologically Below one. Also, he introduced encrypted DMs only for verified users.
Musk announced the CEO change with a December poll asking his followers if he should “step down as CEO of Twitter” and vowing to heed the wishes of the masses (and likely bots, too).
The vote came after Musk implemented a widely criticized policy change that apparently banned sharing links to other social networks. Musk later clarified the rule and then rolled it back. He promised there would be a vote on major policy changes in the future — not the first time he’s promised Twitter decisions would be made by a committee. A few minutes later he tweeted The Resignation Pollwhich received around 17.5 million replies, with 57.5 percent saying he should no longer be CEO of Twitter.
The poll was hardly the first indication that Musk would eventually find someone else to take over the day-to-day running of Twitter. Testifying in court about his compensation as Tesla CEO in November, he said, “I expect to cut my time on Twitter and, over time, find someone else to run Twitter,” consistent with previous reports agreed that his role as CEO was advertised as a temporary device from the start.
Update 7:55pm ET: Added reports that Linda Yaccarino is the new CEO of Twitter.