Twitter owner Elon Musk on Friday said his social media company’s incoming CEO is Linda Yaccarino, an outgoing NBCUniversal executive with experience in the advertising industry.
“@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology,” Mr. Musk said on Twitter. “Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
Mr. Musk teased the arrival of a new leader for Twitter on Thursday, saying an unnamed woman would start in the coming weeks. He announced Ms. Yaccarino’s addition Friday as rumors swirled that she was in talks to begin working for Twitter.
Ms. Yaccarino’s tenure at NBCUniversal extends more than 11 years. She previously worked at the entertainment company Turner for two decades, according to her LinkedIn profile. She interviewed Mr. Musk onstage at an advertising conference in Miami last month.
Advertising is a critical part of the social media company’s business, which Mr. Musk has overhauled since taking over the company last year.
Mr. Musk has looked for a successor to run Twitter for months. In testimony to a Delaware court in November, he testified that he would find someone else to run the platform.
The next month, he polled Twitter users about whether he should leave the company’s top spot, and 57% of the 17.5 million voters urged him to step aside.
As the poll results rolled in, Mr. Musk said in December he had no successor and had not found anyone who wanted the job that could keep the company alive.
In Ms. Yaccarino, Mr. Musk looks to have found an executive to keep the company afloat and help him turn the platform into X.
Mr. Musk’s goal of creating X is not new. He explained in October 2022 that taking over Twitter was part of his desire to build the new product.
“Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” he said then.
Precisely what X looks like remains to be determined, but Twitter has experimented with new features in Mr. Musk’s tenure.
Earlier this week, ousted Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson said he intended to take his show to Twitter.
Mr. Musk shared news of the cable news fixture’s migration to Twitter in a tweet that said the social media company had not signed any deal with Mr. Carlson.
Mr. Musk said Mr. Carlson would have access to an advertising revenue share that will soon be made available to content creators on Twitter, and the Twitter owner hoped left-leaning voices would plan to use his platform in a similar fashion as the former Fox News Channel personality.
• This article is based in part on wire-service reports.
Source:Washington Times
