The head of advertising for NBCUniversal is in talks to become Twitter’s new CEO, it was reported Thursday — hours after Elon Musk announced he had hired a woman for the role, without naming her.
Musk, who bought Twitter in October 2022, tweeted, “Excited to announce I have a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will start in ~6 weeks!
“My role will transition to exec chairman and CTO (chief technology officer), overseeing products, software and sysops.”
Musk has not yet revealed the identity of his new CEO. He’s cut about 70 percent of Twitter’s workforce since buying the company for $44 billion, including the entire executive team.
On Thursday evening, The Wall Street Journal reported that Linda Yaccarino is in talks to become the new CEO.
Yaccarino currently serves as the President of Global Advertising and Partnerships at NBCU and has been with NBCU for over a decade.
Linda Yaccarino is reportedly in talks to become Twitter’s new CEO
Yaccarino is seen with Elon Musk on April 18 at the POSSIBLE marketing conference in Miami
Elon Musk announced the news on Twitter, but did not reveal the identity of the new CEO
Twitter CEO Elon Musk says he’s hired a new female CEO to take over from him, but has yet to name her
Yaccarino has played a vital role in calling for more securities advertising.
She played a pivotal role in launching NBCU’s ad-supported Peacock streaming service.
Yaccarino and Musk have not commented on The Wall Street Journal’s report.
An NBCU spokesperson told the newspaper that Yaccarino is preparing a presentation for advertisers.
Musk is also the CEO of Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX.
Immediately after the announcement, Tesla shares rose more than 2 percent, a sign that investors were pleased with the move.
A group of shareholders publicly urged the board in April to make sure Musk spent more time on the company.
The letter said they were “increasingly concerned with governance and leadership issues at the company.”
When Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 28, he made an instant impact — but his tenure was not without controversy.
Changes such as the Twitter Blue subscription and bringing previously banned users back to the platform met with widespread backlash.
He also laid off thousands of the company’s employees in an effort to cut costs significantly.
Tesla shares rose after Musk’s announcement on Twitter on Thursday
Musk made an immediate impact after taking over as CEO of Twitter on October 28, 2022
He sought to develop the site’s subscription feature to supplement its ad revenue.
Under the new system, users would have to pay an $8 monthly fee to have their account verified — and receive the site’s blue check mark.
Previously, the site would award a verified account to notable figures such as politicians, celebrities, and journalists.
However, Twitter seemed to backtrack on its new model in part by restoring some old accounts, including LeBron James and William Shatner.
Twitter also suffered a user outage in February that lasted for hours and required a workaround, leading to an apology from the company.
On Wednesday, he announced that a new privacy feature for encrypted messages had been announced as part of Twitter’s goal to become the “most trusted platform on the web.”
On Thursday, however, he warned users that the feature should not be trusted and that it was “not quite there yet” despite his initial joke that even with a “gun to” he couldn’t view messages. [his] head’.
Musk’s announcement came after he promised in December to step down as head of Twitter once he found someone “foolish enough to take the job.”
It also came days after Musk denied signing a deal with ex-Fox host Tucker Carlson, who revealed he planned to relaunch his show on Twitter.
The ousted television host made the announcement in a three-minute video posted to his Twitter page on Tuesday, lashing out at the mainstream media, saying anyone who tries to tell the truth “will be fired.”
“The best you can hope for in the news world right now is the freedom to tell the fullest truth you can, but there are always limits,” Carlson told his fans.
“If you run into those limits often enough, you’ll get fired for it. That’s not a guess, that’s guaranteed.’
He posted the video along with a tweet saying, “We’re back.”
But Musk denied that a special agreement had been reached with Carlson and that he was subject to “the same rules” as all content creators.
“I also want to make it clear that we have not signed any deal. Tucker is subject to the same rules and rewards as all content creators,” Musk tweeted in response to Carlson’s video.
“Rewards means sharing subscriptions and ad revenue (still working on software needed for latter), which is a function of the number of people who subscribe and the ad views associated with its content.”
Musk added that he would like others to follow Carlson’s example.
“I hope that many others, particularly from the left, also choose to be content creators on this platform,” Musk said.