Elon Musk has confirmed that the , or X Corp. as it鈥檚 now called, will be NBCUniversal鈥檚 Linda Yaccarino, an executive with deep ties to the advertising industry.
鈥淚 am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!鈥� Musk wrote in a Friday tweet. He added that Yaccarino 鈥渨ill focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.鈥�
Yaccarino has worked at NBCUniversal for nearly 12 years 鈥� with her team generating more than $100 billion in ad sales since 2011, her notes. According to , Yaccarino previously served as NBC鈥檚 chair for advertising and client partnerships and as president of cable entertainment and digital advertising sales. Prior to her time with NBC, Yaccarino worked at global entertainment company Turner for almost two decades.
Yaccarino Musk on a Miami stage last month in front of hundreds of advertisers.
Luring advertisers is critical for Musk and Twitter after many after his takeover of the social media platform, fearing harm to their brands in the ensuing chaos. Musk said in late April that but provided no details.
Yaccarino could help restore advertisers鈥� faith in Twitter, ad agency DiGo founder and creative chief Mark DiMassimo said. He noted that Yaccarino successfully integrated and digitized ad sales at Comcast and NBC 鈥� and that her track record of cross-selling ads across different platforms could appeal to Musk as he tries to transform Twitter from a social media company to a bigger media platform.
鈥淚f anyone can translate the Musk vision into advantages for marketers she鈥檒l be able to do it,鈥� DiMassimo said. 鈥淓ven though there鈥檚 skepticism and all marketers live in the 鈥榮how me鈥� state right now with regard to Twitter, if in fact she does go to Twitter this is a powerfully reassuring move.鈥�
Musk has long insisted he is not the company鈥檚 permanent CEO. The Tesla billionaire said in a tweet Thursday that his role will transition to being Twitter鈥檚 executive chairman and chief technology officer.
In mid-November, just a few weeks after buying the social media platform for $44 billion, he told a Delaware court that he does not want to be the CEO of any company.
More than a month later, he tweeted in December: 鈥淚 will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.鈥� asked him to step down in a Twitter poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by.
In February, he told a conference he anticipated finding a CEO for San Francisco-based Twitter 鈥減robably toward the end of this year.鈥�
Analysts who follow Twitter鈥檚 business welcomed the news even without knowing who the replacement will be. Twitter鈥檚 advertising business has taken a hit under Musk鈥檚 mercurial rule, though the billionaire told BBC last month that the company is now 鈥渞oughly鈥� breaking even.
鈥淎 new CEO is the only way forward for Twitter,鈥� said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.
鈥淭he single biggest problem with Twitter鈥檚 ad business was Elon Musk. As he steps back, Twitter can begin to unravel Musk鈥檚 personal brand from the company鈥檚 corporate image and attempt to regain trust among advertisers,鈥� Enberg said. 鈥淭he success of those efforts will depend on who takes over, but it鈥檚 difficult to imagine that the new CEO could be more controversial or damaging to Twitter鈥檚 ad business than Musk has been.鈥�
Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester Research, added that advertising is not the only challenge that Twitter鈥檚 new CEO will face 鈥� after all, Musk has 鈥渇undamentally altered鈥� Twitter both as a product and a community, arguably 鈥渇or the worst.鈥�
鈥淲hile he鈥檚 stepping back from the CEO title, Musk is far from likely to step back from calling the product shots,鈥� Proulx said.
Shares of Tesla rose about 2% Thursday after Musk made the announcement. Shareholders of the electric car company have been concerned about how much of his attention is being spent on Twitter.
Last November, Musk was questioned in court about how he splits his time among Tesla and his other companies, including SpaceX and Twitter. Musk over a shareholder鈥檚 challenge to his potentially $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electric car company.
Musk said he never intended to be CEO of Tesla, and that he didn鈥檛 want to be chief executive of any other companies either, preferring to see himself as an engineer. Musk also said at the time that he expected an organizational restructuring of Twitter to be completed in the next week or so. It鈥檚 been nearly six months since he said that.
Musk鈥檚 tenure at Twitter鈥檚 helm has been , and he鈥檚 made various promises and proclamations he鈥檚 backtracked or never followed up on. He began his first day firing the company鈥檚 top executives, followed by . He鈥檚 upended the platform鈥檚 and has scaled back content moderation and safeguards against the .
Bantering with Twitter followers late last year, Musk expressed pessimism about the prospects for a new CEO, saying that person 鈥渕ust like pain a lot鈥� to run a company that 鈥渉as been in the fast lane to bankruptcy.鈥�
鈥淣o one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,鈥� Musk tweeted at the time.
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AP Business Writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Mae Anderson contributed to this report.
Barbara Ortutay And Matt O鈥檅rien, The Associated Press
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