Musk confirms Twitter’s new CEO is ad guru Linda Yaccarino from NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino, a veteran advertising executive, will be Twitter’s new CEO, according to Elon Musk.

“I am thrilled to welcome Linda Yaccarino as Twitter CEO!” Musk tweeted Friday. Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology,” he said.

According to her official bio, Yaccarino has worked at NBCUniversal for nearly 12 years, helping her team sell over $100 billion in ads since 2011. Yaccarino was NBC’s chair for advertising and client partnerships and president of cable entertainment and digital advertising sales, per LinkedIn. Yaccarino spent nearly two decades at Turner before joining NBC.

Musk was questioned by Yaccarino in Miami last month.

Musk and Twitter need to attract advertisers after many left in the early months of his control of the social media company, fearing brand damage. Musk announced in late April that sponsors had returned without details. DiGo founder and creative leader Mark DiMassimo claimed Yaccarino might help Twitter win back advertising. He observed that Yaccarino effectively integrated and digitized ad sales at Comcast and NBC, and that her experience cross-selling ads across platforms may appeal to Musk as he tries to turn Twitter into a media platform.

“If anyone can translate the Musk vision into advantages for marketers, she can,” DiMassimo added. “Even though there’s skepticism and all marketers live in the ‘show me’ state right now with regard to Twitter, if she does go to Twitter this is powerfully reassuring.”

Musk has always denied being the company’s CEO. The Tesla billionaire tweeted Thursday that he will become Twitter’s executive chairman and CTO.

He told a Delaware court in mid-November that he did not want to be a CEO, just weeks after buying the social networking site for $44 billion.

“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job,” he tweeted in December, more than a month later. Millions of Twitter users requested him to resign in a poll the billionaire staged and vowed to follow.

He told a conference in February that Twitter would choose a CEO “probably toward the end of this year.”

Twitter analysts applauded the news without knowing the replacement. Musk told BBC last month that Twitter is “roughly” breaking even despite his erratic leadership.

Jasmine Enberg of Insider Intelligence stated Twitter needs a new CEO.

Elon Musk was Twitter’s biggest ad problem. “As he steps back, Twitter can begin to unravel Musk’s personal brand from the company’s corporate image and attempt to regain advertiser trust,” Enberg said. The next CEO’s impact on Twitter’s ad business is unlikely to exceed Musk’s.

Forrester Research research director Mike Proulx said that Musk has “fundamentally altered” Twitter as a platform and a community, probably “for the worse,” so the incoming CEO will face more than just advertising.

“While he’s stepping down as CEO, Musk is far from likely to step down from calling the product shots,” Proulx added.

Musk’s announcement boosted Tesla shares 2% Thursday. His Twitter use has worried electric car firm shareholders.

Musk was questioned in court in November about his time allocation between Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter. Musk testified in Delaware’s Court of Chancery on a shareholder’s challenge to his $55 billion CEO compensation scheme.

Musk said he wanted to be an engineer, not Tesla’s or any other company’s CEO. Musk also expected a Twitter organizational restructuring to be done in a week. He mentioned that six months ago.

Musk’s Twitter leadership has been chaotic, and he’s broken several promises. On his first day, he fired the top executives and 80% of the workers. He changed the verification mechanism and reduced content control and misinformation protections.

Musk said late last year that a new CEO “must like pain a lot” to oversee a company that “has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy.”

No one wants to save Twitter. “No successor,” Musk tweeted.