Elon Musk explained on Thursday he has discovered a new chief government for Twitter, but did not name the person, when the Wall Street Journal noted that Comcast NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino was in talks for the work.
Musk mentioned in a tweet: “Excited to announce that I have employed a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting up in ~6 months!”
Fired up to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be commencing in ~6 months!
My role will changeover to remaining exec chair & CTO, overseeing merchandise, software package & sysops.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Could 11, 2023
Musk reported he will transition to the job of chief know-how officer of the social media system within the upcoming few months.
Musk, who took about as CEO of Twitter when he done his $44 billion obtain of the corporation in Oct, mentioned in December that he would phase aside as CEO after he identified “someone foolish plenty of to consider the position.” He stated that he would then run Twitter’s software program and servers groups.
The WSJ cited persons acquainted with the scenario in saying that Yaccarino was in talks for the major put up.
Reuters documented soon after Musk’s tweet that Yaccarino could be his choice to direct Twitter, in accordance to a Silicon Valley government and a previous Hollywood executive who spoke on affliction of anonymity.
Yaccarino, the best promotion sales govt at NBCUniversal, interviewed Musk at an advertising and marketing meeting in Miami last month.
At the conference, Yaccarino inspired the audience to welcome Musk with applause and lauded his perform ethic.
“Many of you in this space know me, and you know I pleasure myself on my get the job done ethic,” she explained, incorporating, “Buddy, I met my match.”
Yaccarino joined NBCU in 2011, soon after 15 many years at Turner Amusement and has been credited with dragging the network’s ad sales procedure into the electronic foreseeable future.
As broadcast television audiences migrated to streaming, she took to the phase at Radio Metropolis New music Corridor past yr to notify advertisers that their manufacturer messages had been not an afterthought.
Yaccarino did not react to calls seeking comment on Thursday.
When asked for comment, an NBCUniversal spokesperson claimed, “Linda is in back again-to-back again rehearsals for the Upfront,” referring to a presentation NBCUniversal will host for advertisers in New York on Monday.
Yaccarino’s exit would be an additional big blow to the business right after Comcast mentioned final thirty day period that NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell was leaving soon after acknowledging an inappropriate romance with a female in the company, following a criticism that prompted an investigation.
“ANCHOR IS LOOSENED”
Musk has previously not named any future candidates.
Speculation was rife on Thursday amid tech and media insiders and on Blind, an nameless messaging application for tech staff members.
Previous Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, previous YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and a top govt at Musk’s mind-chip startup Neuralink, Shivon Zilis, ended up amongst names that were remaining talked over.
Musk, who has come underneath fire from investors in his Tesla electrical vehicle company as remaining distracted by his focus to Twitter, claimed he will transition to the function of Twitter’s govt chair, together with the position of CTO, overseeing merchandise, program and procedure functions.
Musk’s write-up about a new Twitter CEO arrived about 15 minutes prior to the near of Wall Road on Thursday, and Tesla shares closed 2% greater. The shares rose a further 1.6% in just after-hours trade.
“The boat anchor referred to as Twitter is loosened from Musk’s ankle. Now he can get back again to expending much more time generating price at Tesla,” mentioned Craig Irwin, analyst at Roth MKM.
Musk has extensive mentioned he intended to uncover a new leader for Twitter.
In a Twitter poll commenced by Musk in December, 57.5% customers voted for him to phase down as CEO of the social media platform.
The billionaire’s initial two months as Twitter’s proprietor in October were marked by immediate improve. He promptly fired
Twitter’s past CEO, Parag Agrawal, and other senior leaders, and then laid off half its staff in November.
Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has reported he took more than Twitter to prevent the platform from starting to be an echo chamber for dislike and division.
He also stated he would “defeat” spam bots on the platform, a key place of his tussle with Twitter’s board above his again and forth on the buyout of the company.
He reported previous thirty day period that Twitter was “roughly breaking even.”