Linda Yaccarino Named CEO Of Twitter

• After several days of online speculation, Elon Musk made it official and announced — via Twitter, appropriately — that Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Global Advertising and Partnerships for NBCUniversal has been named as Twitter’s new CEO. On Friday, just ahead of Musk’s confirmation, Yaccarino resigned from NBCU.

“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk tweeted. “@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.” Musk has said he’s going to assume the role of Executive Chair and Chief Technology Officer at Twitter.

As Variety reports, Yaccarino, who had worked at NBCU since 2011, “will be tasked with rebuilding Twitter’s advertising business — which Musk claimed had cratered by as much as 50% after he closed the takeover in October 2022. Advertisers have been wary about Musk’s mercurial decisions in running Twitter, as well as his reinstatement of thousands of formerly banned Twitter accounts.” After announcing Yaccarino’s hire, Musk commented, “I think people from both sides of the political spectrum will find Linda to be smart, fair and reasonable.”

Back in December, Musk said he would step aside as Twitter’s chief executive once he found “someone foolish enough” to take over the role. However… Musk — who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX — will retain control of the social network and remain closely involved in running it. Musk recently renamed the company “X Corp.” as the parent of Twitter.

Musk’s deal for Twitter was originally valued at $44 billion, but hey, a lot has happened since then… he says he now values the company at $20 billion, so Ms. Yaccarino has nowhere to go but up. [Photo from LinkedIn]