After announcing on Thursday that he has found a new CEO for Twitter, Musk officially confirmed NBCUniversal’s advertising chief Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO in a tweet on Friday. After Musk’s initial announcement, NBCU confirmed Yaccarino’s departure.
In a tweet on Friday, Musk said Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.” Yaccarino will begin her role as Twitter’s new CEO in six weeks.
Reports surfaced online on Thursday that Yaccarino was in talks to take over as CEO from Musk after the billionaire announced he was stepping down. Musk kept to his promise of stepping down as Twitter CEO after making a poll last year asking the public to vote on the decision.
According to her IMDb profile, Yaccarino joined NBCU in 2011 and is responsible for generating more than $10B in revenue annually. She’s also responsible for helping NBCU form “non-traditional” partnerships with companies like Apple, Snapchat, Buzzfeed, and YouTube. Before her departure, Yaccarino helped NBCU continue its partnership with Twitter to amplify the 2024 Olympic Games. Last week, she tweeted at Musk: “Hey, @elonmusk, here’s an idea for our new partnership: Periscope for Paris 2024. Let’s just go hi-res first.”
Musk will hope that Twitter’s fortune turns good under Yaccarino’s stewardship. Some major brands have stopped spending on the social platform after Musk’s chaotic takeover. Musk rolled out a revamped Twitter Blue that offers verification to anyone for $8 monthly. According to Reuters, the product rollout has enjoyed limited success, with only 619,858 subscribers as of April 30th.